Ouroboros
by BrokenRose99
Summary: During the First Contact War, the backwater colony of Terra Zenith is blissfully unaware that they are not alone in the universe. However, with the arrival of an invasion of Batarian Pirates, the colony is abducted, and subsequently occupied. During these events, a turian squad crash lands on the planet, and their only hope of survival, is a truce with the two remaining humans.
1. Day 0: Prologue

**AN: Hey everybody! I'm going to try to refrain from a super long author's note to start with, and just give you guys the basics. First off, this is an OC centric story, so if you are wondering where everybody is, they're not going to be in here, aside maybe a few cameos. Second, If there are any discrepancies with this story and any of the other media in the series _besides_ the games, I apologize, as I have not read/seen them. Any information that might be from those sources is the product of me browsing the wiki, so if you tell me that I'm wrong about a certain event, I'm not going to have a clue what you're talking about. Third, I'm now going to shut up, and let you feast your eyes on this glorious wonder. (Shameless self-promotion, WOOT!)  
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**Disclaimer: Sorry, I don't own Mass Effect, BioWare does.**

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Terra Zenith, Colony #1

June 10, 2157

7:55 A.M.

Stacey's morning groan was worse than usual. The previous night, the woman had had one too many drinks, and was now sporting the killer headache and nausea to prove it. Only to add to the absolute stress of waking up with a hangover, was the absence of a warm body next to hers, eliciting another groan from the very sick woman. Apparently, Kent had thought it would be a good idea to leave her be this morning, and tromped off to work without waking her. Now she had to get Holly dressed, fed, and had to ferry her to school. By herself. With a hangover.

Fabulous.

Tearing herself from her bed sheets and recoiling in pain from the bright sunlight streaming in through the window, Stacey trudged to the master bathroom, muttering something akin to "Aspirin," but she couldn't really tell herself. Spying herself in the mirror, the woman decided that she certainly felt worse than she looked. Sure, her hair was a bit more tousled and mussed than normal bed head, and her mismatched eyes were red and bloodshot, but that usually happened in the morning anyway. Stacey wasn't a morning person by a long shot.

Deciding a shower would be prudent; Stacey stripped out of her skivvies and stepped into the stall, turning the water on as hot as she dared to do without burning herself, thinking it would help clear her head. The cascade of liquid seemed to refresh her a little, though definitely not enough to avoid medication. After toweling off, she rummaged through the medicine cabinet that doubled as a mirror, her hand soon alighting on a bottle of aspirin.

Grabbing the bottle, bringing it with her back to the bedroom, and placing it on the nightstand, Stacey was soon searching through her drawers for a new pair of undergarments. Finding only a few clean ones, the woman told herself that she should do the laundry later. After slipping the garments on, she also selected a good pair of dark blue jeans and her favorite tank-top – an orange floral print with a white background – to wear to work. Stacey decided to forgo socks for now, feeling a little too warm for them. She also kept her hair down, silently thankful that it was naturally straight.

Snatching the aspirin on the way out after getting dressed, Stacey stumbled her way out of the bedroom with reasonable finesse considering her current condition, and eventually arrived at the kitchen. Briefly, her tired mind considered whether to brew actual coffee, or just go with the cheap instant crap. Looking at the clock, Stacey opted for instant, and as soon as the mug was spinning in the microwave, left the kitchen to go wake Holly.

"Ms. Shale, it's time to get up!" the woman practically shouted at the child's door. Hearing the grumblings of a high pitched voice and the sound of movement, Stacey returned to the kitchen with her first satisfied smile of the day, despite the fact that she had to clutch her head from the pain of shouting. "Note to self," she muttered in a less than pleased tone, smile now gone, "Never shout with a hangover again."

Retrieving her cup of instant crap – coffee, she told herself in her head, coffee – from the microwave and setting it on the table, Stacey unscrewed the bottle of fast-acting aspirin, and downed two of the little white tablets with a swig of said coffee. The woman didn't even bother to stifle the sigh of pleasure that escaped her as the combination of caffeine and painkiller worked its magic. "Thank god for advances in modern medicine. Now all they need is a cure for the actual hangover in the first place."

Feeling considerably more able, Stacey picked up her mug and sat down at the table in the center of the room, pulling the datapad she found laying there closer to her for her perusal. It was a note from Kent, obviously apologizing for leaving her alone with child-care duties. It confirmed her suspicions that, yes, the stupid colony guard had taken her man from her three hours ago, at five o' clock in the morning. He went on to say that he was terribly sorry about it, and that he loved her immensely. Unfortunately for Kent, Stacey was not so easily won over with pretty words. There would be hell to pay when she saw him later, career be damned!

While she waited for her charge to emerge from her room, Stacey took the chance to appreciate her surroundings. She was inside Colony Residential Building #25, but to her, it was home. Sure, the house was utilitarian in style and design, and was sparsely decorated, but it was a home all the same. The fact that it was a step up from all of the apartments that she'd lived in back on Earth had always made Stacey laugh, despite the fact that people on the homeworld thought that she was actually just slumming it in an over-glorified trailer.

Terra Zenith was a beautiful world. The grass was greener than any Stacey had ever seen on Earth, and the mountain that stood over the colony provided nice scenery. However, the most aesthetically pleasing part of the planet was the beautiful ring of ice that you could see in the sky at night. From a life-supporting point of view, the planet was perfect. It was a world whose soil could support most Earth plants, and it was also a rich source of iron. Surprisingly however, the planet had little insect or animal life, the land being predominantly filled with flora rather than fauna. Still, there were reported sightings of animals akin to Earth squirrels, and there were rumors of horse-like creatures on the plains surrounding the mountain.

Drawn from her reverie by the sound of the door sliding open behind her, Stacey turned around to see a little girl, no more than six years old, with bright blonde hair, fair skin, and icy blue eyes. Looking up, Holly gave Stacey a tired grin and said, "Good morning Big-Sis."

"Good morning to you too, Ms. Shale," replied Stacey, putting down the datapad and going over to the child, a happy grin settling on her features. "Can I get you anything to eat?"

Holly was Kent's considerably younger sister. She was, by far in Stacey's opinion, the cutest little girl ever, impossibly sweet, and was implicitly innocent. Once, Stacey had had a large amount of trouble describing to the child that, no, she was not her mother, and that Kent was in fact her brother, and not her father. The event had caused her no small amount of embarrassment, and Kent had felt her wrath later when she found out that he knew of the little girl's views, but had done nothing to correct them. That had been two years ago, and Stacey's poor fiancé still hadn't heard the end of it.

Stacey noticed that the girl had gotten dressed on her own, and the outfit actually looked coordinated, sending a shot pride through the young woman. The girl had dressed herself in a black sundress, and had a bright red ribbon tied in a bow in her long hair, around a blonde braid that hung just to the left of Holly's face.

Holly replied with, "The usual, please," before plopping herself on one of the table's chairs.

"You got it, Ma'am," Stacey returned, eliciting a light giggle from the child. The young woman always addressed Holly formally in the morning, after an incident where she had offended the girl during breakfast by rudely calling her the plant princess, and caused Holly to throw a fit. Afterward, to avoid further incident, Kent had suggested that Stacey only refer to the child as Ms. or Ma'am in the early hours.

The little girl actually was good with plants though, and she even had one in her room that she took care of, without the help of her surrogate parents. It was an orchid, a flower that Kent had thought a morbid choice. Stacey had told him to shut up, knowing that Holly had confided in her that she wanted to be a botanist when she grew up, and she didn't want to discourage her. Morbid taste in flowers aside, Holly's dream seemed very down to earth for a six year-old girl, in a metaphorical sense, as well as a puny one. Unfortunately, it didn't make as much sense literally because of the fact that they were not located on Earth, but, you can't have them all.

Stacey moved to fetch the girl her breakfast – oatmeal, if you could believe it – and hummed a tune to herself. Despite her crappy awakening, and decidedly gross instant coffee, Holly always put a smile on the young woman's face. Stacey had never been prone to maternal feelings prior to meeting Kent back on Earth, but she had to admit that she had a large soft spot for her fiancé's little sister.

"Here you are, Ms. Shale, one bowl of oatmeal, with extra cinnamon-sugar," Stacey told the little girl as she sat her food in front of her, along with a spoon she'd snagged from the drawer. The young woman moved herself to the other side of the table, and sat down in front of her charge, sipping coffee from her mug.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Holly questioned.

Stacey made a dismissive gesture and said, "Nah, I don't have to go into work till eleven, so I can wait." She glanced at the clock. "Meanwhile, you need move it sister, we've gotta leave in ten minutes."

Holly smiled slyly. "We might leave faster if you actually had shoes on."

Glancing down, Stacey noticed that she was indeed barefoot. Smiling embarrassedly, the young woman excused herself from her sister's presence, retreating back to the bedroom to fetch socks and shoes. Thinking to accessorize a bit - since she would probably eat out and go to work from there – she also added a brown leather belt and a silver metal bracelet in the shape of an ouroboros to her ensemble.

When she returned, Holly had finished eating, and was rinsing the bowl off in the sink. Smiling slightly, Stacey left her charge to it, and fetched her purse from the foyer, along with an mp3 player that she'd left to charge. Sometimes, when she needed a break from the bustle of work, she'd seclude herself in the bathroom and blast one of her favorite songs in her ears. She found the exercise relaxing, although she would probably be docked some pay for taking 'unscheduled' breaks.

"Holly!" she yelled, "You ready?"

The girl raced into the room saying, "Just about. Still need to put shoes on."

"And you get on my case," Stacey rebuked, and, seeing as the girl had stopped in her tracks, continued, "go girl, don't let my grumbling stop you, we'll be late." Holly nodded, and quietly slipped on her sandals while her sister waited. Seeing that the little girl was ready, Stacey wasted no time careening out the door.

Terra Zenith Colony No.1, or Tezuno, as Stacey liked to call it, was, unfortunately, not large enough for there to be a public transit in town, despite having existed for four years. As such, Stacey and Holly had to walk to the school, a good ten minutes away. Not to mention the fact that Stacey would then have to walk to the commercial district from there, almost thirty minutes away. Luckily for both of them, the designers of the colony had decided that it would be a good idea to place the school in the residential district, so they at least wouldn't have trouble making one deadline.

Because of the colony's status as more of a mining outpost, the ratio of children to adults was quite low. The adult populace topped off at around one-thousand, while there were only about twenty-five children. What was more; ninety percent of the adults were miners, while five percent were soldiers, like Kent. The remaining five percent were fortunate enough to work in the commercial district, where Stacey worked as a bartender. Apparently, no matter where you lived, people needed alcohol for one reason or another.

Although the soil was able to support crops, Terra Zenith still imported food. Apparently, the government thought mining resources was a much better way to use the colonists' time, but had promised to create farms once they had gotten a new influx of colonists. That event was likely not to happen, mostly because of the fact that the government was diverting all resources to their sister colony on Terra Nova, but the whispers of a war with aliens, of all things, were also sure to put people off to the idea of colonizing another planet. Terra Zenith was definitely backwater, and any and all reports of news from offworld came from food shipments, the last one being a month ago, so Stacey didn't really know what to make of an interstellar war or the threat of another sentient species, when she had no context on the matter. Even Kent didn't know, and he was the one in the military.

Holly was practically bouncing around as they walked, her hair flopping about as she moved. Stacey, ever curious, inquired as to what had gotten the child so worked up.

"We're having class outside today!" Holly exclaimed. Of course, nothing got her so excited like nature.

Stacey chuckled at the child's enthusiasm. "Oh, is that so? What are you doing today?"

"We're planting a garden, it's a class project!" Holly replied with considerable verve, making her sister laugh a bit more. "What's so funny Big-Sis?" the child asked, confused.

Stacey laughed in response and reached down to tousle the girl's hair. "Nothing kiddo, you're thinking too hard."

Obviously not pleased, Holly protested, but was instantly shushed by the older woman, who had barely managed to stifle another giggle at the child's annoyed expression. Possibly seeing she would get nowhere with her inquiries, Holly shrugged, and resumed bouncing around until they arrived at the school.

The school was actually just a building a few times larger than most of the houses, big enough to hold a few classrooms, and not much else. The schoolyard was just a wide expanse of grass, bordered by a few trees that had been transplanted for that purpose.

As soon as they were in sight of the door, Holly darted off, waving a goodbye behind her in her haste. Stacey smiled again at the child's enthusiasm, waved, and turned around to start the trek to the commercial district, which was located on the complete other side of the colony.

Thirty minutes later, arriving at her destination, Stacey immediately made her way to one of the two cafés still open. The commercial district was small, literally containing a couple cafés, bars, and a large department store. The only way for the restaurants to exist was to have specific types of food shipped to them exclusively, so the department store only stocked bare essential rations, like oatmeal for instance, along with basic supplies of every kind.

The café that the woman currently resided in, Rising Eagle, specialized in American cuisine, and was Stacey's favorite of the two, which may, or may not, have had anything to do with the fact that it served bacon. Stacey had always groaned at the whole, bacon is delicious, stereotype, but what could she say? It tasted good.

After a delectable breakfast of the salty strips of meat in question, along with a mug of decidedly less shitty coffee, Stacey reclined back in her chair, closing her eyes and rubbing her stomach with an audible sigh.

The brunette hostess came over and sat down in the chair across from her. "Hey Stace," she said, her humorous brown eyes smiling almost as brightly as her actual mouth.

Stacey cracked an eye open. "Hey Maribel. Aren't you supposed to be working? You know, greeting customers and such."

Maribel was the owner and proprietor of the café, who also worked as its greeter. She was a good friend to Stacey, despite being ten years older, and the two were regular drinking buddies. Maribel had a tendency to get into other people's business, however, and being drunk usually loosened her lips. As such, Stacey had never told her friend anything particularly profound, and the same could be said for Maribel.

The hostess looked around the empty restaurant incredulously. Spreading her arms, Maribel asked, "Do you see any customers other than you? I think not."

"Isn't that beside the point? You should be standing up there to get customers in here."

"I'm on break," Maribel grunted in reply.

Stacey raised an eyebrow, but said nothing to further provoke her friend. "Anyway, I'm sure you didn't come over here to talk about your work ethic. What's up?"

The older woman smirked slightly. "You're right, I didn't. I came over to discuss something a bit more fun… like what happened last night."

Stacey's eyes widened. Had she said anything she shouldn't have while drunk? Stacey didn't think so, but the memories were just hazy enough to cause worry.

Maribel laughed at her friend's expression. "Don't worry hon," she said, "It's nothing like that. I just wanted you to know that I had to drag your drunken ass home last night with your fiancé."

Relief flooded through the bartender. Good. She liked Maribel, but she didn't trust her to keep secrets. "I offer you my condolences."

"Damn right! No offence Stace, but you're a bitch when you're drunk. You almost clawed my eyes out."

Stacey waved it off. "Mari, you are one of the biggest drama queens I've ever met. Kent would never let me do that."

"Speaking of Kent," Maribel inquired, leaning forward, "When are you two getting hitched? You've been engaged, what, a year now? And why aren't you wearing your rock?"

The bartender lifted her hand to scrutinize it, and discovered that she was sans engagement ring at the moment. Inwardly, she sighed. She wouldn't be able to go back for it without being late for work. "I must've left it at home. Drat."

"That sucks mate. Still, I wanna know when the wedding day is, you know, so I can crash the party, so come on; give me the heads up, would ya?" When Stacey shyly looked away, Maribel gasped. "You two aren't having problems are you?"

Stacey whipped her head back toward the other woman, and waved her hands in front of her in a flustered dismissal. "No! Of course not! We just…" she hesitated, then decided to tell her friend, "We want to make sure I'm able to adopt Holly first, that's all." Maribel opened her mouth to comment, but Stacey stopped her. "Shut up! It's not common knowledge, and I don't need whatever fluffy comment you've got loaded for me. And before you even ask, no, you can't tell anyone."

The older woman deflated to the verge of pouting. "Come on, just one person?"

"No."

Maribel crossed over into full pout mode. "Party pooper," she grumbled.

After a small silence, the two women eased back into conversation, now chatting about random things: food orders, mining progress, drinks that Maribel wanted Stacey to try, exchanges of gossip, that sort of thing.

Eventually, Stacey looked at her mp3 player, which was more of a PDA, and saw the time. "Sorry Mari, I've got to go. You know, I've got work responsibilities unlike some people."

Maribel just scoffed. "Please," she said, "You know I don't have to do anything until all the miners come back."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever; the point is, I have to go. Talk to you later?"

"Yeah, later Stace, say hello to Bob for me."

"Will do!" the younger woman chirped on her way out the door.

It didn't take Stacey long to make her way to work, it was just across the street after all, but as soon as she walked in the door, she was greeted by a gruff, "You're late."

Stacey turned to her boss, a bald man with a decidedly large, brown beard and who wore a white muscle shirt, black cargo pants, and combat boots. He was polishing a glass behind the bar, and looking at her with a friendly glower.

Good morning to you too, Robert," Stacey replied with a bright grin, "And as for being late, I'm sure Twixt can survive without me for a few seconds."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever just get ready for work." Stacey laughed, and went to get an apron. During the lunch shifts, she was more of a waitress than a bartender, as she had to prep tables, and even wait them on occasion. It was the slow part of the job, but Stacey enjoyed it anyway. Bob skulked back to kitchen to prep some more.

The atmosphere of Twixt was not as discordant as the name would have one believe. The color scheme was dark, yes, but it was comfortable darkness. The lights were dim, but still radiated a comforting glow. As the bar was alike to the one she'd met Kent in, Stacey was probably biased in her opinion, but she loved the place

Once she'd finished prepping tables, Stacey went to her post at the bar. The waitress came in and threw her a greeting, but then just stood by the door in stoic silence. The bartender had learned a while ago that the woman was not one for conversation. Stacey didn't even know her name, despite having worked with her for years.

Bob came out of the kitchen and exchanged a token greeting with the waitress. Stacey noticed that he didn't use her name either, and wondered if she wasn't the only one with that problem. She would have to ask him later, as he suddenly turned to her with a grin. "Well Miss Ash, you look much better than you did last night. You do know that bartenders aren't supposed to test the drinks themselves, right?"

Stacey fixed him with a glare. "Bite me."

A normal employer would have fired her immediately. As it were, Bob just laughed and replied, "Nah, you know I'm not into that kind of thing." Stacey shot him another dirty look, which he took in stride. "Anyway, I saw Kent and Mari dragging your ass outta here kicking and screaming. I assume you made it home okay?"

Stacey polished a glass as she spoke, trying to hide her embarrassment. "Yeah, although Mari did say I tried to claw her eyes out. She says hi, by the way."

"Saw her this morning, did you?"

"Yep. Kent left me with child, so I decided to grab a bite at the Eagle after I got her to school." Stacey suddenly grinned at her boss evilly. "Using his credit chit, of course."

"How'd you get Holly to school with a hangover?" Bob questioned, silently chuckling at how his employee abused her fiancé. Stacey loved Kent with all her heart, but she would be damned if she didn't admit it was tough love.

"How'd you know I had one?"

"Lucky guess."

Stacey smiled again with less malicious intent, finishing the glass and setting it down. "Well, aspirin is a hell of a thing, Bob, believe you me."

Bob laughed out loud that time. "Amen to that. Listen Stace," he said more seriously, "You've got a daughter to look out for; you can't just go out and get piss drunk like that, y'know?"

"Sister," Stacey corrected absently, "And yes, I know. But cut me some slack eh? Kent's kept me in check for years, well, reasonably anyway; I need to cut loose every now and then. Besides, Holly got dressed all by herself this morning, she's not an invalid."

"Alright, just don't let it happen too often." Bob turned around and made for the kitchen, but paused halfway. "Oh, and one more thing…"

"Hmm?" Stacey grunted absently. She had turned away from Bob, and had started polishing the counter with another stray rag she'd found.

"Don't sneak off to the bathroom and listen to music today, okay? I have an image to uphold."

Stacey sighed. "Goodbye, dear paycheck, I knew thee well," she replied to his back, making him give another short bark of laughter.

* * *

Turian Stealth Ship Ventus, Orbiting Human Colony, Terra Zenith

June 10, 2157

11:45 A.M.

Lent Tovess drifted slowly into consciousness. It was difficult for him; it would have been so easy to slip back into that vegetative state, where he remembered nothing, and nothing mattered except the prospect of more sleep. But he wasn't allowed to do that; one of the drawbacks to working in the military, The Hierarchy wouldn't just let you laze around and sleep all day, biotics be damned.

In any event, Lent rose from his plank-like bed slowly. No one could say he wasn't getting up, but he was certainly taking his time about it. And of course, to his utter dismay, someone chose that moment to enter the crew quarters. Lent wouldn't dare groan out loud, but some of his displeasure must have shone on his face plates, because the dark-blue female in front of him chuckled slightly.

"Good morning Tovess," she said in a light tone, "Did you enjoy your little nap?" The Turian woman's bright green eyes shone with mischief.

"Stow it, Zecht, you try to keep two angry ensigns in stasis while the captain talks sense into them for fifteen minutes, right after you wake up. It's very taxing," was his scathing reply.

Field Medic Chora Zecht was, in so many words, a smart-ass extraordinaire. Lent had wondered on multiple occasions why she hadn't been discharged for insubordination and disorderly conduct years ago.

"Well I never," she said with mock indignation, "Fine, I guess you don't need to know that the captain wants to see you in his office…"

Lent couldn't get off the bunk fast enough. "Did he say why?"

Chora's mandibles twitched in a Turian smirk. "Nope. He did say he wants you there now, though." She appraised him, seeing he was still in his civvies. "But maybe you might want to get suited up first."

"Alright, thanks Zecht. Now get out of here."

Chora pouted slightly. "You're a huge meanie, Tovess."

It was Lent's turn to smirk. "You know you love it. Now shoo. Go…," he thought for a moment, "… do whatever it is you do when you're not mouthing off."

Chora humphed, turned around, and left with a good-natured grumble of, "Last time I bring you a message."

Lent chuckled a little at the farewell, then went to put on his hard armor, grabbing his pistol as an afterthought. It didn't take him very long to get ready, and soon he was out the door and out in the mess, heading for the captain's office on the top deck.

Unfortunately, in his haste to get to the captain before he deserved a verbal lashing, Lent bumped into the female engineer, Eirika Inice. The powder white Turian had been in the middle of some sort of operation on her OmniTool before crashing into his chest, and yelped, yellow eyes flashing in surprise.

"I-I'm sorry, L-lieutenant Tovess, I didn't see you there!" she stammered out, fast as lightning, backing away instantly. "I'll be going now." The woman practically ran away from him in her haste, and Lent didn't even have time to apologize to her himself, instead having to watch her bolt to some obscure corner of the ship.

He felt a twinge of that same pain that had plagued him throughout his entire life, before shoving it back to the depths of his mind. Normal soldiers were, at best, wary of biotics, and at worst, distrustful. Chora and the captain were the only two on board the Ventus, who didn't have a problem with it. Lent sighed and stepped onto the elevator, telling himself not to dwell on it.

The only reason he was here on the Ventus instead of being assigned to a Cabal, was because he had made several fervent requests to be put on a normal team, and Captain Vahrg Svent, who'd observed him during training, had thought he would be a great asset to his crew. Lent knew he was a powerful biotic, and assumed that the captain had wanted him for that reason. Ulterior motives aside, Lent was truly grateful for the opportunity, and had a large amount of respect for his captain.

So when he stepped into the captain's office after his stint in the elevator, Lent was about to loose a Turian salute to his commanding officer. Instead, he was surprised to see Captain Vahrg Svent admonishing another crewmember.

"I understand your concerns, Corporal, but we just can't do that," the captain said in the voice he used when he was trying to put down a subordinate gently.

The corporal looked like he was going to pout, but instead replied with a stiff, "Yes Captain." The corporal saluted Svent, and went to leave, jolting slightly when he saw Lent in the room. Regaining his composure, the Turian snapped off a quick salute and a, "Lieutenant," before exiting.

After the door closed behind the corporal, Vahrg sighed openly. "Glad he's gone," he muttered, causing a tiny smirk to form on Lent's face. Vahrg was a respectable lifelong serviceman from the same colony as Lent, evidenced in the white marks that were splayed on his dark brown facial plates. He was slightly famed for his ability to command absolute loyalty from his men, and his penchant for ensuring the least collateral damage possible. The captain always put his crew first, making sure they were comfortable with their assignments and listening to all their complaints and suggestions.

That last part was what had gotten Vahrg into the predicament with the Corporal. Lent saluted and crossed his arms, asking, "Captain, What did Verio want?"

The captain covered his face with a large three-fingered hand and sighed. "The kid wanted to move in closer to the planet to see if we could get a better reading on the colonists' communications. I had to tell him that we would be detected if moved any closer. His heart's in the right place, but he needs to see the bigger picture. Didn't take the rejection well, from the looks of him."

Corporal Spade Verio was one of the younger crew members. Only twenty, the kid had very little combat experience, and even less for the stealth mission the Ventus was currently on. Lent didn't like him very much, as the corporal was one of the Turians on the ship that openly distrusted him for his biotics. Lent had chalked it up to inexperience, but it still managed to irk him whenever he talked with Spade.

"Apparently not," Lent affirmed. The corporal was easy to read, and he had definitely had not been happy when he left. "Anyway, you wanted to see me Captain? Did something happen with the mission?"

The Ventus was stationed in orbit around the Human colony, Terra Zenith. They'd discovered the colony close to council space around a month ago, two months after the Relay 314 Incident. Since then, the Ventus had been sent in to monitor the colony's activities, and see if they were planning anything militaristic. Lent hadn't really seen the need, as the population was only a little higher than 1000 people, but you didn't question the Hierarchy.

The mission was made possible by the Turian occupation of another Human colony called Shanxi, which had allowed the Turians to engineer a translation of the Human language. That translation had been invaluable to the Ventus, as it allowed the Turians to understand the Human transmissions, and gather data.

So far, they had been able to glean that the main populace was generally unaware that they were not alone in the galaxy; that the military presence on the colony was around 50 men and was more of a police force; and finally that, in Lent's opinion, the colony was of absolutely no threat to the Hierarchy. Still, the Turian ship was stuck there until the situation was resolved.

All in all, the Ventus was an uneventful post this time around, and Lent wasn't surprised when his captain snorted and said, "Of course not. Those people down there don't even know we exist, let alone know that we're orbiting them."

"So what did you need me for, sir?"

In all of his thirteen years serving under him, Lieutenant Lent Tovess had never seen his captain look so nervous. And yet, here he was, shifting his weight slightly from foot to foot, looking slightly stressed, aquamarine eyes lighting up with uncertainty. It took his captain a few moments to gather himself before he could speak.

"Listen Lent," Vahrg said, addressing him informally, "About your assignment to the ship… the Hierarchy has informed me that-"

Whatever the captain had to say would have to wait. Before he could finish his statement, the ship suddenly rocked, violently, almost knocking the two Turians of their feet.

"What in spirits' name was that?" asked Lent when he regained his footing, formalities completely forgotten for the moment.

Vahrg made a gesture implying he was working on it. The captain moved to the console at the front of the office and pulled up a vid comm. "Commander, what's our status, what happened?" he inquired urgently.

"Sir, I'm not quite sure," the commander's voice crackled out, "I can only guess we've been compromised." He looked distracted for a moment. "Sir, you'll want to talk to the LC down in the gunnery, he says he saw something you won't believe."

The ship rocked again and the captain had to brace the console to remain upright. "I'll believe anything at this point," he remarked dryly, "Thanks commander, see what you can do from there."

"Sir," the commander signed off. Vahrg immediately contacted the Lieutenant Commander.

"What's going on LC?"

"Captain, you're not going to believe, I don't believe, and I'm the one who saw it first but-"

The impatience in the captain's tone was clear. "Spit it out!" he barked.

The LC looked frazzled. "It's Batarians!" he blurted, "A whole bunch of them!"

Despite his earlier assurance, Vahrg's head shook in disbelief. "Are you sure?" he asked, confused at the turn of events.

"Am I sure? Of course I'm sure! I saw those ships, they're batarian, no doubt about it!"

"How many?"

"At least five! How is this possible, how'd they know we were here?" The ship tilted once more and the LC let go a loud string of curses. Vahrg didn't even have time to reprimand him for losing his cool before the officer's section of the ship exploded; causing another tremor that knocked Lent down behind him.

The captain whirled away from the console and pulled the lieutenant up. "Get to the escape pods," he intoned, "We won't win this."

Lent was, in a word, stunned. Turians were not a people who retreated from battle. That he was being ordered to the escape pods meant that, no matter what, Vahrg believed that the ship was going to go down.

"But sir," Lent finally sputtered in protest, "What about you?"

"I have to warn the rest of the ship, send out a distress beacon. Move your ass LT, that's an order!" Vahrg's features softened slightly when Lent still refused to move. "I'll be right behind you, so get a move on."

Lent finally nodded his assent, then turned and sprinted through the door. He had taken a slight risk in ignoring his CO's orders, but he had wanted to make sure the older Turian was going to get off the ship. Once in the corridor, Lent decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to leave by way of the elevator.

That left going through the maintenance shafts. Perfect. Lent sighed as he climbed into the small dark section of the floor. Being under attack with no guarantee of escape or survival was so inconvenient.

And so Lent crawled. It was a dark, cramped, and slow moving process that was punctuated by the ship shaking periodically. Once, during that indefinable period of time, the ship rocked so violently, that Lent crashed into the ceiling of the shaft. "Spirits damned batarian bastards! I swear, if I get out of here…" he said rubbing his head painfully, leaving the threat in ambiguity.

And then the darkness finally gave way. After crawling on his hands and knees in what could be called a scenic route if there was anything to look at, up and down various ladders, and many bumps and bruises, Lent had finally reached the maintenance exit on the cargo hold, near the escape pods. As soon as he poked his head out, he was assaulted by an extremity of noises.

Fire alarms were going off, Turian feet boomed on the ship's metallic floor, and, above it all, a familiar scream. Lent scrambled out of the shaft as quickly as possible, head whipping about, ocean-blue eyes searching for the source of the scream. His eyes alighted on Chora, trapped under a metal beam that had fallen in a recent explosion.

She saw him almost immediately. "Tovess," she cried desperately, "Get your tan ass over here and help me dammit!"

Lent sprinted over, glowing dark blue with biotic energy. Despite the need for concentration, he couldn't help commenting, "I see being in mortal peril hasn't cured you of your mouth."

If she wasn't trapped under the pillar, Lent was sure Chora would have tried to shoot him. As it were, she screamed, "Really? Jokes? Is this really the time?"

"Of course not," he stated bluntly as he maneuvered the beam off of her, "I just thought you'd enjoy the comic relief."

Chora took a short moment to stare at him before she stood up, absently dusting herself off as she did so. "And here I thought I was the smart-ass around here."

Lent's mandibles flared slightly in a smile before a not-so distant explosion made him become serious once more. "No more time for banter, escape pods, now!"

Chora nodded, "Gotcha, let's go."

The short run through the cargo hold was devastating. The ship was a parody of what it had been not ten minutes ago. Holes riddled the hold, and what wasn't gone was a blackened mess. Barriers preventing decompression were all around them. It was a miracle that they were even able to reach the escape pod hangar.

Once inside, the two Turians saw that most pods had already been launched, and with one exception, the rest were in the process of doing so. Lent and Chora clambered into the remaining pod to find that they were not the first ones to reach it.

"Lieutenant, Field Medic, I'm glad you made it," was their reception, which was oddly cold. Lent scowled invisibly when he realized who the light green Turian was.

Chora, never one to take insults lying down, or, at least not when there was an option, called him out with a sarcastic, "Nice to see you too, Corporal Verio," before sitting down on one of the benches and strapping herself in. Lent said nothing and did the same.

Spade, ever snide, asked, "Was anyone behind you, or can we get the hell out of here?"

Lent glared at the other Turian. "The captain said he would be right behind me, so unless you saw him go into one of the other pods, or the ship is a few seconds away from exploding, I suggest we wait."

However the corporal felt about Lent, he would not leave his captain behind, nor would he ignore orders from a superior. This became evident, as he immediately backed down, and nodded his assent.

Then they waited. Every second felt like an hour, every moment ticked down to an explosive, if not colorful, death. It was difficult to not just launch the pod and be done with it, but they would not, could not leave without the captain.

And eventually their wait was rewarded. They saw two figures at the other end of the cargo hold, one being supported by the other. Lent recognized his captain immediately. "Sir!" he yelled, "Hurry! We don't know how long the ship can hold out!" As if to punctuate his point, another explosion rocked the ship, sending the two remaining Turians into a stumble.

If they didn't hear Lent's warning, they did adhere to the explosion's message. As soon as they regained their ground, they moved quite a bit faster, and were soon at the pod. Spade helped the injured Turian inside, also helping to strap her in. Vahrg came in soon after, explaining, "Had to take a detour for Engineer Inice here."

The captain strapped in and gave Spade the nod. There were no more survivors that he was aware of. The corporal wasted no time in sealing the pod, fiddling with the controls for a moment before sitting down.

The pod jerked violently as they left the bay, rocking all of its occupants despite their best attempts to remain upright. As if their hasty exit was not enough, not a few moments after the pod's departure the Ventus was enveloped in a sheet of fire, no doubt from an explosion in the engine, and promptly proceeded to explode in a shower of sparks and shrapnel.

Luckily for its occupants, the pod had moved out of range to be affected, but were still afforded a good view. Chora let out an impressed click. "Damn. Good thing we weren't on that, eh Captain?"

Vahrg only rolled his eyes at the medic, an oddly asari gesture. Lent wondered where his captain picked it up. "Yes, Field Medic Zecht, a good thing indeed."

Chora's response was a derisive snort, obviously not happy that her sarcastic commentary was not facilitated. Spade took the slight silence that followed as his chance to voice his concerns. "Sir," he said, "With all due respect, why did we retreat? We could have fought back."

The captain sighed. "And what do you propose that we could have fought back with? The main gunnery stations had exploded when I sounded the retreat. Besides, the Ventus was a stealth ship; it wouldn't have had enough firepower to take out five batarian fighters."

"Alright," the corporal conceded, "But what are we going to do now that we've gotten away? Are we just going to run without retaliation?"

"Corporal Verio, again I ask, how are we supposed to retaliate? We have no weaponry besides the ones on our backs. This escape pod has no armor. We would be blasted out of the sky!" The captain's tone was severe, as if he was growing tired of being questioned by his personnel.

"I'm sorry, Captain," the corporal apologized stiffly, "I only wished to know if we were going to fight back."

Vahrg's expression softened considerably. "I know Corporal, and your concerns are well founded. I'm not saying that we're going to take this lying down, but we can't do anything at the moment. Please try to understand the situation."

"Of course, sir."

Lent thought the entire exchange was out of line on the corporal's part. That the kid had the gall to insult his captain's orders so soon after losing the ship… it was infuriating, not to mention taboo.

The pod's occupants settled down after that, each passenger seeming to take time to reflect upon themselves, a reaction that was no doubt due to the near-death experience they recently shared. Unfortunately, this peace, did not last long.

Eirika Inice, who had stayed quiet since entering the pod due to her shy nature, suddenly looked up from her OmniTool, eyes wide. "C-captain?" she stammered out in panic, "I-I have some bad news!"

"Engineer?" Vahrg asked confusedly, "What's the matter?"

"Uh-um, well you know how we got hit in the engines during the attack, you know, cause I was down there and you came to get me and-"

"Deep breath, Inice," Lent supplied, trying to calm her down, "Tell us what happened." The Turian engineer nodded, inhaled sharply, and began.

"I was just running tests to see if we had the proper trajectory to reach the planet the other pods went to, and, well uhm… I don't know how to say this but… apparently, before our pod launched; the Ventus was knocked close enough to Terra Zenith to be captured by its gravity, and uhm… so are we. We don't have the thrust capabilities to shake it off either so… I would prepare for a crash landing!"

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**AN: If you made it to this note, you've either scrolled down the page or actually read the chapter. If you did the latter, thanks! I had a lot of fun writing this, and I know I'm going to enjoy continuing it. This is, by far, the longest thing I've _ever_ posted, so if you guys and gals could tell me if I tend to ramble, that would awesome. Also, despite what I said earlier, if there are _any_ discrepancies with events or places, please let me know, and I will strive to fix them. Finally, please, please, _please_, tell me what you thought about the sort of action-esque escape scene, I'm sort of agonizing over it, as I've never written one before.**

**Wow, after all of those requests, I think I'm starting to sound like a beggar. Anyway, thanks again for reading, and I hope to see you all, next chapter.**


	2. Day 0: Disappearance

**AN: Hey everyone! So, I just happened to come back from out of town a bit earlier than I thought I would, and in my good mood, finally decided to split this chapter into two segments. The entire chapter was _literally _10,000 words long, and I'm not even finished with Lent's section yet. But, instead of making you guys wait another week, since this part is already done, I decided to upload it now. Besides, who really wants to read a ten-thousand word-long chapter anyway? That's just asking a bit too much of you guys.**

**I want to thank, Noble Mass, harold1234, Gavoon, and Vertin for their reviews, alerts, and faves, you guys rock!  
**

**Anyway, I'll quit rambling now. Enjoy!**

* * *

Tezuno, Bar Twixt

June 10, 2157

2:00 P.M.

Despite her fervent farewell earlier, Stacey was apparently not too concerned with keeping her pay. When she thought about it, she didn't really have anything to spend her money on, so she had disappeared into the bathroom a few minutes ago, popping in her earphones as she went. Bob would no doubt be less than pleased, but Stacey needed some time to herself, especially since the lunch rush hit.

With nothing to really spend their money on, most of the colonists flocked to the few commercial enterprises available to them on their lunch break, before returning to their duties around three. As it were, Twixt was packed to the bursting with hungry miners, and they could get a bit rowdy at times. Stacey always used the distraction caused by the numerous customer arrivals to sneak away for a bit of peace.

Now, Stacey stood in front of the bathroom mirror, trying to ignore the laborious sounds of another woman in one of the stalls, examining her own reflection. She'd recently pulled her hair back into a bun, leaving a small lock of auburn hair to hang down beside her left eye. Stacey quite liked the style, and was currently checking to see if she'd made a mistake in her manipulation.

Seeing that she was good to go after a minute of scrutiny, Stacey popped her earphones in for another couple songs, standing at the sink and moving slightly to the beat. When she'd finally finished her jam session, Stacey vaguely registered that the other woman had left the room. The bartender also noticed that the miner had neglected to wash her hands, a thought that sent shivers down Stacey's spine. Willing herself to banish those thoughts, Stacey made her way to the door, and most likely a very peeved Robert.

She was given pause, however, as she heard a buzzing from inside the bowels of her purse. Pulling out the mp3 player (Which, she now admitted to herself, was a phone, not that Stacey ever really used that function) and clicked the answer button, bringing the device up to her mouth. "Hello?"

[_Stacey?_] was the garbled reply. Although the bad reception was odd, Stacey smiled at the voice of her fiancé, already preparing a verbal lashing.

"Who else would be using my phone Kent? Of course it's me. And don't think you're off the hook for leaving me this morning, I have half a mind to throttle your ass for-"

[_Stacey! Now is not the time. I can't believe you can complain about such a silly thing at a time like this! Where are you?_]

Now that was confusing. "I'm at the bar, like I always am, in the bathroom specifically. What's going on, why are you so worked up? I mean, I would want to avoid getting yelled at too, but what-"

He cut her off again. [_You mean you really don't know?_]

"Um, that would be a 'yes', love."

He sounded incredulous. [_Stace, we're under attack! How could you possibly not know?_]

Stacey grinned. He was obviously trying to distract her from reprimanding him. This was a first for him - he usually owned up to his mistakes or trespasses – but that had never stopped anyone before. "Oh, I see now Kent, yeah, we're definitely under attack," she teased, "Now that you mention it, I can hear the sounds of gunfire and explosions in the background."

[_Damn it Stacey, this isn't a joke, or an evasion, you need to listen to me and get out of there!_]

"Oh, stop being so dramatic, Maribel won't like the competi- what the hell?" she suddenly exclaimed.

[_Stacey? What is it?_] Kent sounded worried. Stacey was going to have to ask him where he got his acting skills, because he sounded damn convincing.

"Alright, I'll bite, how'd you get everybody out of here so fast?" Stacey said. She'd walked out of the restroom and into the hallway to find the barroom completely empty, chairs and various glasses overturned in some sort of hasty exit. There was a smell in the air, one that the bartender remembered, but couldn't quite place. It made her nose wrinkle slightly.

[_What! Everyone's gone?_]

Stacey rolled her eyes as she turned away from the vacant room and reclined on the wall, even though he couldn't see her. Or, come to think of it, maybe he could. That would be so like him. Kent wasn't the type who pulled pranks, but she'd seen him do it a couple times. He always went all out for them, and always wanted the best seat in the house when everything came to fruition. "Yeah, didn't I just say that? Listen, I don't know what kind of thing you have planned, but do really think it's a good idea to get on my bad side? You've already annoyed me once today."

[_Damn it Stacey, I swear on my life that I'm not trying to trick you! I know you're a little mad at me right now, but god, you have to believe me!_]

Alright, that was definitely convincing. Still, if they _were_ under attack, where were the sounds of battle, where were the screaming civilians, and where was the damn colony guard? It just didn't make sense.

It was with this in mind that Stacey walked into the main area about to give her employer a piece of her mind for playing along with her fiancé's tricks, before she stopped cold. It had been faint before, a smell that was all too familiar, yet unrecognizable. Now the bartender knew what had made her nose wrinkle in disgust as she'd left the restroom.

Blood.

The woman had proven quite adept at sending shivers down Stacey's spine. She'd died quickly; a bullet had blown the miner's brains out, along with a portion of her face. Stacey turned away from the gruesome sight with a scowl. "Shit!" she hissed to Kent, "Okay, okay I believe you."

Her fiancé sighed audibly in relief over the phone. [_Good. You had me worried there for a moment, Stace. What changed your mind?_]

"A dead body," Stacey replied, deadpan. "How'd this happen?"

If her casualty had bothered him, Kent's voice didn't give it away when he answered. [_I don't really know. One minute, I'm hanging out, getting a coffee, and the next I'm fighting for my life._]

"So who's attacking us? Terrorists?" Stacey began to pace. She couldn't stand to stay still in this situation.

[_No. Well… maybe. See um… the people attacking us may be um… aliens._]

That stopped her. "You're joking, right?"

[_Well, unless they're a terrorist group that only recruits people with two sets of eyes, no, I'm not._]

"Great," the bartender groaned. "You know anything else, love? What about Holly?"

[_Sorry Stace, I don't know. I'm pinned down at the outpost, I can't leave or they'll see me. I don't even know if anyone else besides you is alive._]

A flash of worry seared through Stacey. "Are you going to be okay?"

[_I don't know._]

Stacey smiled slightly, trying to alleviate her fear for her family with humor. "You don't know much, do you?"

Kent didn't laugh. [_What are you going to do Stace?_] he asked, ignoring her attempt to lighten the mood.

"That's easy," she said casually, "I'm going to look for Holly, and then we're getting the hell out of here. You can tag along if you like." It was ballsy of her, but Stacey had always liked to tackle her problems head on.

[_Heh, always optimistic, aren't you? Alright, you've got a deal. You got a plan?_]

Stacey grinned impishly to herself. "Nope. I was hoping you would do the honors, love."

Kent let out another hefty sigh, this one in exasperation. [_You always did like pushing off your work on other people, didn't you? Fine, I'll try to come up with something from here. In the meantime, do you know if Bob stashed any worthwhile weapons around the bar?_]

"Yeah," Stacey said, "I know he bought a pistol to warn off rowdy customers a while back. Hopefully he didn't take it when he vacated the premises."

[_Good, go get it. And while you're doing that, switch to your earpiece; I know how you hate holding a phone._]

"True," she said. Stacey moved behind the bar and crouched to rummage through her purse for the device in question. Quickly snapping it to her ear and syncing it to the phone, Stacey said, "Testing. Can you hear me Kent?"

[_Loud and clear Stace._]

She didn't bother to answer his affirmation as she began her search, leaving her purse behind, as it didn't contain any other useful items. The bartender was methodical and concise, soon working her way to the other end of the partition, and finding the firearm in a drawer just beneath her boss' favorite whiskey.

"Found it!" she said pulling it from its resting place. It was a Beretta from the look of it, and was a model Stacey was familiar with. She checked the weapon for wear and found little. Bob had kept it in good condition. "I don't even have to field strip this baby to tell that it'll work just fine."

[_I wasn't even aware you even knew _how_ to field strip a gun._] Kent didn't sound upset at the information. In fact, Stacey thought he sounded impressed.

"Oh, there are lots of things you don't know about me, Kent," she teased, "Someone's got to keep the romance alive. A bit of mystery always helps."

[_I'll bet. So tell me, do you also know if the gun is even loaded?_]

Stacey scoffed in mock offense. "What do you take me for, a rookie? Of course I can tell if a gun is loaded. If you must know, this Beretta has a full fifteen bullet magazine."

[_Oh good. Can you find any spares?_]

"One sec," Stacey said, rummaging through the drawer. She found two extra clips in the back, both of them also full. "Yep, found a couple. And before you ask, no, there are no extra boxes of ammunition. Bob only bought it to scare off drunken idiots, not shoot people."

[_Crap,_" he sighed, "_We'll just have to make do then. Still, I'm happy you found the gun, it makes me feel better and I can't even see the damn thing. There's one more thing I need you to grab though; go to the kitchen._]

"Gotcha," she replied. Rising to her feet, Stacey moved to the doorway that separated the two rooms, sliding her new weapon in the back of her pants and the extra ammo into the pockets of her jeans as she went.

The kitchen was far more orderly than the barroom, though, that didn't come as a surprise. Bob had always been a neat freak, and definitely would not have allowed his workspace to be contaminated by clutter. The entire room was clad in stainless steel appliances, giving it a sleek, modern look that had always annoyed the crap out of Stacey.

"So what did you need me to get?" the bartender asked as she pushed her way inside. He probably wanted her to grab food, but she didn't have anything to carry it in. Stacey wondered how he was going to rectify that.

Surprisingly, he said, [_You remember that survival gear that Bob always talked about?_]

Stacey blinked. "Yeah, that stuff he said he was going to buy and go spend a week in the jungle with?"

[_Well, he finally got it. He has it stored in a cabinet next to his office. Grab it; it'll be invaluable, I'm sure of it._]

Stacey nodded, again forgetting for a moment that her fiancé couldn't see her, and headed to said cabinet. Inside, it did indeed contain everything one could want for surviving in a hostile environment, be it in the jungle or during an alien invasion.

The gear consisted of a sturdy looking, beige backpack that no doubt held a canteen and some sort of ration, along with having a large amount of storage space; a survival knife that rested in a worn leather sheath that could be strapped to virtually any accessible joint; and, for some reason, a shoulder holster that looked tailored to the Beretta that now poked into Stacey's back. The cabinet also housed a med-kit, obviously containing the lovely substance aptly named medi-gel.

Stacey picked up the holster first, a confused look on her face. "Why would Bob want something like this?"

[_Stacey?_]

"Bob has a holster for the Beretta," she elaborated.

[_He has a holster, but no extra ammo? How does that even make sense?_]

"Are you really _complaining_? It doesn't have to make sense; we have an unexpected, but useful resource. Let's just utilize it."

[_I guess you're right Stace, just irks me is all. …Hey, how are you holding up? I know this kind of thing can be a lot for a person to handle._]

Stacey began to outfit herself with the gear as she spoke. "I'll be fine, Kent, no need to worry," she said, strapping the knife around her right thigh.

[_But I _am_ worried. You seem awfully calm about all this. Think about it; you've seen a dead body, everyone's gone off to god knows where, and are being subjected to god knows what, and _you_ are now procuring weapons and gear to help you survive an alien invasion that has pretty much unbalanced your entire life, yet, you take it all in stride, and even find the strength to crack a joke or two. That isn't odd to you?_]

Stacey sighed tiredly, stopping for a moment. "Kent, this isn't the first time life has come crashing down around me. I just know how to deal with it better than some people." It was an admission that Stacey had never told anyone before, and it surprised her how easily it had slipped out of her mouth. Potentially deadly circumstances apparently had the ability to loosen one's lips.

Kent was quiet for a moment. Then, [_Do you want to talk about it?_]

"No." The refusal was cold and cruel, leaving no room for argument. Stacey immediately recoiled from the harshness in her tone, but didn't apologize. There were some things she didn't want to talk about, and those parts of her past were among them, circumstances be damned.

Kent must have been surprised by her merciless tone, as he went quiet once more. Stacey took the time to outfit herself with the holster, slipping the gun under her left armpit and inside it when she finished. The bartender also packed the medi-gel into the backpack, as she had no illusions about remaining uninjured throughout this entire ordeal.

[…_Alright Stace, I won't push. I just hope you'll tell me eventually. In the meantime, I've come up with a plan._]

"Good, I'd hate to have to sit here all day waiting for you to think about what we're going to do," Stacey replied, looking through the other contents of the pack. It contained some simple rations that could last for a few days while the wearer scavenged more food from their surroundings, as well as a canteen that had a built in water purifier. "So, what's our COA?"

[_First off, I'm gonna need you to get Holly at the school._]

"No problem, I was planning on doing that anyway. What then?"

[_I'm going to meet you there, and then we'll head to the transport hub outside the commercial district and 'commandeer' a vehicle._]

"Why don't I do that right now? I'm right here after all. Also, I thought you were pinned down," the bartender asked, slinging the pack over her shoulders.

[_No, in both regards. We need to be as quiet as possible when we go and get Holly. I don't want to put her in any unnecessary danger. As for being pinned down, I don't see any movement on my radar, so I'm pretty sure they've gone. Anyway, after we get the car, we'll drive back to the commercial district, scavenge any supplies we can and put them inside. After that, we'll go to the caves, and hide out there for a few weeks until those things leave._]

"Alright, I get your point. Still, why wait for them to leave? I say we go through the caves, get to the comms. tower on the other side, fire it up, and send a distress signal." As she suggested this, Stacey checked if all her gear was attached comfortably, and to see if any of it would slip.

[_We could be detected,_] Kent protested.

"Or, we could call in a strike and annihilate those alien bastards in one fell swoop," Stacey replied angrily. Seeing that everything was in place, Stacey reclined against the kitchen wall. It was odd to be weighed down by weaponry; it brought back memories of another life. Stacey even caught herself twirling the only lock of hair that hadn't been pulled back into the bun, a mannerism that she had suppressed years ago.

Kent seemed to consider her suggestion for a moment, but then answered, [_I don't know Stace. Anyway, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Are you ready to go?_]

"Yeah. Should we stay in contact?"

[_Of course. I'll call you if anything important comes up. Alright, I'm going to head out. Good luck, Stacey. I love you._]

Stacey smiled worriedly. "Yeah, I love you too. See you soon."

And with that, Stacey straightened up. Quickly, she exited the kitchen and made her way to the side door of the barroom, avoiding the woman's body as she left. Stacey turned one last time and gazed at the empty building that held a large amount of happy memories. The woman glanced at her wrist and saw the metal snake there, happily consuming itself in an endless cycle. "Here we go again," she murmured tiredly.

Stacey looked around herself. It seemed almost laughable; the sun was shining brightly, as if nothing was wrong with the colony. However, Stacey noticed that there was no bustle of people, no noises of life, only wind wafting through blades of grass. Everyone was gone.

Stacey wondered about this. She supposed they could have been abducted by the four-eyed aliens, but how could they do that so quickly, and so quietly? Perhaps they had advanced technology that could allow them to perform such feats, but that was highly improbable. Still, they were aliens. No matter how improbable, anything to that extent was certainly possible.

The bartender pulled herself out of her thoughts and focused on the problem at hand. She needed to formulate a route to the school, one that could get her there undetected. Stacey tried to form a mental image of all the alleyways and deep shadows that could possibly offer sanctuary. Pleased to find that she could plot a good route, Stacey set out for one of the neighboring buildings.

Stacey ducked into the shadows of an alley. Her movements were quick and quiet, her footfalls soft, and subdued. She hadn't used this kind of travel in a very long time, but it was coming back to her. This was a bit more difficult than navigating an urban jungle, but the same principles applied. Stay on your toes, move quickly, always look behind you, and expect to be expected.

Strangely enough, Stacey felt little fear. In actuality, she was more nervous than fearful, although, that came as no surprise. In the past Stacey had a tight rein on such emotions, and was even confident in her ability to handle herself, although, after eight years…

Stacey banished that thought. Pessimism had no place in survival.

Her creeping mode of movement carried Stacey through the colony slowly. Although she moved faster than she normally did, the endless amount of detours and freezes when she heard an unsettling noise took its toll on the amount of time it would take to reach the school. She had already been on the move for twenty minutes, and was barely a third of the way to her destination.

Then Stacey stopped. Looking from her secluded position, Stacey could see figures moving about in the distance. They were humanoid, that was for sure, but human? That she couldn't tell. It was highly improbable that they were. Stacey had only stumbled upon them, and she wasn't even looking. It was far more likely they were those aliens. Stacey saw that they were in the middle of her intended route and scowled. Now she would have to take another detour.

It was needless to say that Stacey was worried. Holly was a smart girl, but was too sweet and innocent to have any real fight in her. If she was found, the little girl would no doubt be subjected to a similar fate as that of other colonists, though, what that was, Stacey had no clue. Speed was imperative at this point, and the bartender quickened her pace.

Once more, Stacey was given pause as she passed between more residencies, this time in answer to her buzzing earpiece. Quickly, Stacey crouched low to the ground and pressed the answer button. "Kent?" she hissed.

What she heard over the line didn't bode well. Instead of a reply, Stacey was greeted by sounds of exertion and the rattle of gunfire. "_Kent_!" she tried again.

More heavy breathing, then: [_I'm sorry Stacey… they saw me,_] her fiancé huffed.

"So why are you calling me? Get the hell out of there you idiot!"

[_They've… got me cornered… I can't… run away anymore._] Kent replied in between breaths. [_I'm really sorry, love._]

"What are you talking about? Stop apologizing, just shut up and survive!" Stacey's worry carried through her voice and she knew it. She didn't care. Now was not the time to hide her emotions.

[_It's all over for me… I… they shot me… so much blood…_] His voice was breathy, and weak. Hearing him like that almost made Stacey crack. He was always the strong one. She allowed herself to be weak around him, not the other way around.

"Don't say that dammit! You are not going to die, that's an order."

Kent gave a bitter laugh. [_I… never was… good at following orders._]

"Bastard…" she said weakly. Kent would never lie to her, not about this. She didn't want to accept it, wanted it to be a dream. But Stacey was very much awake.

[_Stacey… you need to listen to me…_]

Stacey didn't trust herself to speak, not right now. She wanted to just lie down and drift away, let the aliens do what they will, and just forget.

[_I need you… to look after… Holly. You can't… just shut down… like I know you want to. She needs you. Our daughter… needs you._]

"Our daughter needs _us_. If you think I'm going to just let you slip away, you've got another thing coming!" The words sounded stronger than she actually felt. But she knew if there was any chance that she could keep some semblance of this life, Stacey knew she would fight tooth and nail.

What happened next shattered any hope of that.

There was no warning or ceremony. No goodbyes or I-love-yous. Just one, loud crack, and then a dial tone.

Stacey didn't cry. In fact, Stacey didn't move at all. She sat there uncomprehendingly for a few moments. She didn't blink, didn't fidget, didn't even think. Just sat there, doing nothing at all. It was strange; her mind was completely empty. What had just happened wasn't being relieved, rehashed, or even remembered. It was just blank.

Suddenly, she moved, standing in an almost robotic fashion. The vessel that was once Stacey Ash moved quietly through the colony toward her destination with a blank face. She still stuck to the shadows, but her movements were stiff, and disjointed, although, she didn't seem to mind at all.

When she finally reached the school, it seemed to be crawling with aliens, although that seemed a silly word to use. They were yellow skinned, and had two pairs of eyes, four onyx black portals that resided on their faces. Tubular constructs led down from a nose that looked, for lack of any other kind of description, disgusting, into the alien's armor, although where they went from there was not discernible. There were about five of them in the area, all armed with what could be called the equivalent of an assault rifle. Not that Stacey's body really _cared_.

Still with stiff, robotic movements, the vessel slinked over to one of the school's side doors, which was guarded by a yellow four-eyed thing. Stacey's expression didn't change even when she snuck up behind the unsuspecting alien and slit his throat. If she had been aware, she might have marveled at the fact that slitting an alien's neck killed it, perhaps noting that cutting an enemy's carotid arteries would kill them regardless of race. As she was, Stacey's body didn't even pay attention to the blood now staining her hands, let alone the method she'd used to obtain it.

Instead, the vessel merely walked inside the building, although, what she would do afterwards was a complete mystery.

* * *

**AN: That's it for now. Hopefully Lent's part will be up real soon for you guys, and don't worry, it won't take a week. Thanks for reading, and see you soon!**


	3. Day 0: Search

**AN: Well everyone, here it is! Lent's part, that I've been working on for absolute ages. It's a _lot_ longer than the last chapter so I hope that makes you guys happy. I could ramble on and on about my troubles writing this one, but you probably don't care, so I'll let you guys get on with the story.**

**After I give everyone kudos for their alerts and faves. Thanks Guys/Gals!**

* * *

Terra Zenith Colony #1, Outskirts

June 10, 2157

2:20 P.M.

Crash landing an escape pod on a planet that was filled with life that grew on the other side of the protein was definitely not fun. Crash landing in general was no walk in the park, but the last bit just added to the Turians' troubles. They would have to survive off of the small amount of rations that were stored in the pod until help arrived. If help arrived.

And of course, if imminent starvation wasn't enough, they just had to happen to crash land in the middle of a Batarian raid on the colony. Luckily, they'd landed far away from even the outskirts of the town, but that didn't mean they weren't in danger.

After Engineer Inice's warning, the remainder of the pods occupants had begun to try and figure out a way to not die in a smoldering wreck. Remaining occupants of course meant the captain, Lent, a few sarcastic comments from Chora, and a few not so sarcastic comments from Spade. Regardless, the Turians were able to somehow prevent themselves from burning up in the atmosphere, and creating a huge impact crater. If they made it out alive, perhaps it would go down in the record books as one of the most uncanny crash landings and subsequent survivals in military history.

Lent drew himself out of his meaningless grumblings and looked around him. The colony that they had finally walked to was exactly as expected. Large steel buildings, although none more than two stories high, permeated the area. The main ground of the colony was concrete, although they had left some amount of grass to break from the monotony. That was really all there was to look at. This colony was small, backwater, it didn't have enough use or population to warrant any sort of grandeur.

They'd spent a whole hour arguing about what to do after crashing and finding out that their distress beacon had been reduced to a pile of scrap. Spade had suggested that they wait and see if they could fix it, a sound idea that Lent actually agreed with. Their survival odds would go much further down if they decided to traipse about the colony looking for the means to set off a signal. This mostly had to do with the large amount of Batarians that occupied the now abducted populations' former homes.

And yet, here they were, doing just what could get them killed. Lent would never dare to question his captain's orders, but this particular one just didn't make much sense. Vahrg told them that since they were here, they might as well do their duty and survey the colony to find out what happened and why. Lent knew it was part of their initial mission, but he was pretty sure that the parameters of it didn't include crash landing on the planet so they could investigate a Batarian raid. If they did, well, that would be extremely inconvenient for Lent's griping now wouldn't it? And so it was that Eirika and the captain were figuring out where they should go while Lent just stood here, examining the skyline.

Chora suddenly clapped Lent's shoulder. "Hey, are you okay in there? I know it's hard to believe, but you're not dead yet Tovess. I checked."

"Sorry Zecht, I was just thinking of all of the exciting ways that we could die here," Lent grumbled in response. He was in the mood for some banter; maybe it would help him be a little less bored while the captain and Eirika figured out where the heck they were going.

"Oh don't be such a downer. Aren't you even a little bit curious about how these humans live?"

"Um, that would be a no, Zecht. Besides, what good would that do us now? They've all been abducted or killed anyway."

Chora frowned at him disbelievingly. "Well, I _am _curious. I mean, just think about it, a new sapient race. We haven't seen one of those since the yahg, and these ones seem to at least be a bit friendlier."

Lent snorted. "Yeah, friendlier my ass. That's why we're at war."

"Because we shot them first," Chora replied simply. "If we hadn't, who knows what could have happened. Have you even been paying attention to the comms that we've been monitoring? These are normal people, not savages. Perhaps our races could have been friends."

"Yeah, maybe." Lent sighed. This conversation had taken a turn for the serious, a rare occurrence for Chora. He couldn't believe he missed the usual smart-ass remarks. Still, at least it made sense. Chora had never made any secret about her thoughts about how this whole thing with the humans started.

"Ughh, you're so boring Tovess. Here I am, making conversation, and you just stand there with a sigh and reply with clipped sentences. Fine. I'm going to go see if I can get a rise out of the corporal," Chora said with a wicked smile, turning on her heel to go bother Spade. Lent turned with her to watch the show.

Unfortunately for both of them, at that moment the captain and Eirika finally finished deliberating and called the rest of the survivors over. "Alright everyone, here's what we're going to do," the captain said, "There's a guard station just inside the colony. We're going to go inside, assess the situation, and see if there are any ways of getting off this planet, as well as looking for anything we might be able to use as a distress beacon. Any questions?"

No one spoke, so Vahrg led the way toward the deserted human city that waited for them. Lent drew his pistol, Spade his assault rifle, Chora her shotgun, and Eirika just stood there looking flustered before following them. Of course, she was good at setting up tech explosions, but she wasn't really a combat engineer, so Lent probably had some barriers to erect in his near future, which was going to be just fantastic with the pod's limited food supply. At least the Engineer had only twisted her ankle while escaping the _Ventus_; and it wasn't something that would have provided the biotic with more work.

As the team walked through the colony there wasn't a stir. No Batarians jumped out of the shadows to attack them, and no hysterical colonist started screaming, or could be heard screaming in the distance. All was quiet, except for the sound of wind wafting between the buildings. The atmosphere was a bit unnerving, and left the entire squad tense.

Lent expected to hear Eirika muttering some kind of calming mantra behind him, but when Spade started tapping his gun in a nervous twitch, he was surprised. For all his bluster, the corporal was still genuinely made uneasy by combat, no doubt because of his past experiences, which had been the reason why he'd been transferred to the _Ventus_ in the first place.

Quickening his pace, Lent made sure he was clearly in the corporal's peripheral before giving him a reassuring clap on the shoulder. He'd made that mistake once before and almost gotten his head blown off in thanks. Spade turned to look at him squarely, surprise and suspicion clearly written on his features. Still, the corporal nodded his thanks and seemed to relax a bit from there. No matter their personal differences, Lent still remembered when he'd been a nervous wreck in battle, and he felt sympathy for the younger Turian.

Pleased to see that he'd successfully calmed the corporal down, Lent fell back again. When he again walked next to her, Chora gave him a playful shove and whispered, "Spirits, I think a volcano just erupted on Noveria. I never thought I would see the day…"

"Shut up, Zecht," Lent replied gruffly, returning the shove. Chora said nothing further, bet kept a quiet smirk on her face.

The rest of the trip to the outpost was uneventful, a fact that slightly unnerved Lent. They weren't even trying to be inconspicuous, and yet there had been no enemy attack or even any visible signs of occupation. Despite the biotic's gut feeling that there was something very wrong with this part of the colony, the five Turians soon stood in front of the two-story building that would most likely hold answers without so much as a scratch.

"Engineer," Vahrg ordered, "Scan the building for signs of life. Everyone else be ready."

Eirika nodded nervously in reply to her order. After quickly fiddling with her Omni-Tool and then moving her arm around in front of her, Eirika replied, "No life signs sir, although, I did detect a large amount of um… blood." The engineer's mandibles clicked against her face in barely concealed apprehension, making it obvious that she wasn't looking forward to venturing inside.

Vahrg sighed and brought his hand to face for a brief moment. When he pulled it away, disappointment permeated his voice. "Alright then, no sense in standing out here any longer. Let's go in, I'll take point. Lieutenant, you watch our rear."

Lent nodded in affirmation, snapping off a, "Yes sir," before falling back behind Chora and Eirika.

…

The interior of the station was darker than one would think. There were few windows, and it looked as if the power was mostly out, which could be a problem later. Hopefully some of the core systems were still online, as they _had_ come here for information, and Lent would hate for their dangerous trip into enemy territory to be a waste.

The area that the team currently occupied seemed to be a lobby. Chairs were lined up near the door, as well as something that looked liked the human equivalent of a magazine. A large part of the room was cordoned off by a large wooden desk that was lined with human computers, possibly where a few receptionists would have worked. Seeing that one of the computers was on, Eirika stepped out of line and hustled over to it, accessing it with her Omni-Tool and surprising the rest of the Turians.

Whatever could be said about the engineer's combat skills, the woman was a _very_ good hacker. Even though the system she was interfacing with was programmed in a completely different language, Eirika had little trouble acquiring whatever she was looking for. "Captain," she said in a voice that was far more confident than she had ever sounded previously, "I was able to obtain a map of this outpost from this terminal, as well as a more detailed map of the colony than the one we currently have."

Even Vahrg looked stunned for a moment before he regained his composure and replied, "Good work Engineer, forward them to everyone's Omni-Tools please."

"Of course sir," she said, again confident. Eirika pressed a few buttons on her Omni-Tool again, and this time everyone else's beeped, receiving the maps. "There are a few things of interest on those maps, if you would like to hear my opinion, sir."

"Go ahead, Engineer."

Eirika nodded. "Well, sir, there is an armory on the first floor, a few rooms away from us. There is also an office space that seems to have the most concentrated amount of blood, as well as a communications room, on the second floor. I suggest we head for those locations."

Lent was floored. Eirika seemed to have become a completely different person in a matter of moments, offhandedly mentioning the location that most likely held the largest amount of bodies without so much of a stutter. Whatever had come over the Engineer, it was definitely an improvement.

However, it seemed that Eirika's change in attitude was temporary, for as soon as the Turian rejoined the group, she was again nervously clicking her mandibles against her face once more. Vahrg stared at her for a moment before answering. "I don't think we'll need to go to the armory, their weapons would be of no use to us, however, I do want to investigate that office, as well as the comm. room. Those could definitely hold some answers as to what's going on. Hell, maybe we'll find something that could fix our distress beacon."

"Y-yes sir," Eirika stammered out, "Please, follow me."

Vahrg nodded, and motioned for everyone else to let the engineer take the lead. As they followed her, Lent fell into step beside Chora and gave her a questioning glance. The field medic had seemed the least surprised by Eirika's temporary personality shift.

Chora smiled slightly, and replied to Lent's unspoken inquiry. "That's the first time I've seen Engineer Inice do that during a mission, but it used to happen a lot back on the _Ventus_. As long as that girl has some sort of tech-y device to focus on, her demeanor changes completely. I never worked out why, but, it's never been a problem before, so you don't need to worry about it."

"Isn't that kind of thing unhealthy though?" Lent asked quietly as they followed Eirika up to the second floor.

"Not really, she just feels more comfortable around computers, that's all. Why are you so worried?" The wicked smile that dawned on Chora's face left no questions as to what she'd just thought up. "Why Tovess," she said slowly in mock astonishment, "I never thought that you went for the timid ones."

"Shut up, Zecht," he said tiredly. Lent knew she was teasing him, so any kind of refusal to her assumptions would have fallen on deaf ears. Besides, Lent was never one to become flustered by anyone's remarks, let alone Chora's.

"You're right; she's more Spade's type anyway."

"Okay, we are _not_ going to start gossiping right now. Later, preferably when the two in question can't hear every word we say," Lent admonished teasingly.

"Why do you have to ruin my fun?" Chora pouted.

"Because that's how I get _my_ fun. Now, shut up before we get yelled at by the Captain."  
Chora groaned, "Yes, _Dad_," effectively obtaining the last word before clamming up. Her comment drew an annoyed gaze from Spade, but she ignored him, and he faced forward once more.

After a few more moments following Eirika, the five Turians reached an empty upstairs hallway that branched off into three directions. The engineer pointed to each one in a clockwise fashion starting with the hall to their left, respectively saying, "That one leads to the break room, that one to the Comm. Room, and that one to the offices." The nervous tremor was still evident in her voice, no doubt because she was now leading the group around.

Vahrg spoke, saying, "Thank you, Engineer, that'll be all. You can go back to the line."

"Y-you're welcome, Captain, thank you," she replied in her flustered manner before resuming her place between Lent and Chora. Chora gave the engineer a questioning glance, but she didn't seem to notice.

"We'll check the office first," Vahrg ordered, proceeding down the hallway to their right. As soon as he turned the corner, Lent smelled the blood. From the strength of the odor, there was a lot of it. The biotic treaded warily after his companions as they entered the office space.

The gruesome sight that awaited them was to be expected. The humans, caught by surprise in the quiet, cramped room, had tried to fight back. They had been slaughtered. Corpses littered the space, blood staining the otherwise grey walls of the cubicles. Lent saw a holo of a smiling human woman on one of the desks, and turned away abruptly. Even Chora's usually light-hearted attitude was dampened. The field medic didn't make any attempt to crack a joke, but instead just examined the room, a sad look in her eyes. Eirika fidgeted in place, obviously unnerved by their surroundings. Spade's face was made of stone.

The captain seemed to be exhausted by the sight, something that came as no surprise to the other Turians. Vahrg had always taken civilian casualties hard. Granted, these humans technically weren't civilians, but they had been defenseless enough to fit the bill.

The captain had Eirika run a scan on all the bodies, something that she was surely loathe to do. The results were predictable, telling them that the humans had been caught unawares, and most of them had died in the initial hail of gunfire.

If they had been anywhere else in the colony, this would have told them that the Batarians had just wanted to raid the colony for one reason or another. But, because the building was obviously military, they couldn't rule out the possibility that it had been a slave run, and they'd just wanted to eliminate any sort of real resistance the humans had before abducting the colony.

So, in the end, the office really had nothing new to tell the Turians about the Batarians' plans, and the squad filed out of the room not five minutes after entering, the only noticeable purpose of their visit being to fray their nerves. The Turians' procession banked a hard right to their next destination.

The comm. room was larger, and more open than the previous one. The back wall was lined with all sorts of human equipment that Lent wouldn't have been able to recognize if he'd tried, the only piece of familiar technology being some small things that looked like datapads, as well as what appeared to be a large monitor affixed above a black console.

Everything was smashed. Obviously, the Batarians had wanted no news of their arrival to reach the colony, or the Alliance. It also meant that the Turians would find nothing to aid their repairs. Despite all of this, Eirika once again jumped from the line and began to interface with the console using her Omni-Tool.

After a few moments of what seemed to be a meaningless attempt at salvaging something from the console, the engineer let out something that sounded like a squeal of delight, surprising Lent once more. Vahrg was at her side looking over her shoulder in an instant, asking, "What did you find?"

If Eirika was bothered by her captain's proximity, it didn't show on her once again confident face. "All of the communications relays in the colony are destroyed," she reported, "But, local transmissions are still possible. I was able to detect some recent activity on the network from this console, despite it's less than sparkling condition."

"Can you get a playback on it?"

"One moment, sir," she said, turning to her Omni-Tool and tapping in some sort of command. "Alright, I've enabled a translation, as well as a playback of the conversation."

_[Hello?] _came a woman's voice. The tone didn't come across as distressed, but merely inquisitive.

_[Stacey?] _This voice was male, and sounded significantly more worried, appropriate to the current situation.

The transmission was filled with holes. At first, the female apparently didn't know much about the current state of affairs, and was disbelieving of the man on the line. As the conversation progressed, the female eventually ended up believing the male, and asked about a person named Holly. At that point, the conversation fell into a static filled mess, and Eirika spliced into the next recognizable piece of the communication.

The two humans were discussing how the female would procure things to help with her survival, bantering back and forth all the while. It was during this that the male human apparently overstepped his bounds, and was cut off by the female, which led into another bout of static. When the two could be heard once more, they agreed to meet up at a school building in the residential district of the colony, before another splice to the point where they cut transmission.

The entire playback that the Turians listened to took fifteen minutes, although Eirika told them that it was actually twenty-five without the static, as well as informing them that there was a more recent communication that had been all but destroyed by interference. At least what they heard had clarified that the Batarians were definitely making a slave run; although, how they found out about the colony in the first place was the real mystery.

Afterwards, Vahrg brought Lent over to talk in private, leaving the others to stand awkwardly away from them. It came as a surprise to the biotic until he realized that he was technically his captain's second in command now. Still, Lent didn't miss the dirty look Spade gave to his back.

"What do you think about all this, Lieutenant?" Vahrg asked.

It shocked Lent that Vahrg was asking for his personal opinion on the matter, but he didn't let it show on his face. Instead, he answered, "Well, I think we should go intercept those two at their meeting place. Maybe they have some more information on the colony that could be useful to us, or the location of some sort of communication device that we couldn't find out about from here."

"My thoughts exactly, Tovess. If we can rescue those two as well, that would be an added bonus. I don't like the thought of two civilians running around, armed or not," Vahrg replied with a smile.

The two Turians went back over to the group. Eirika, it seemed, was off of her tech high and was fidgeting again. Chora was leaning against the nearby wall, cleaning out her talons even though they weren't dirty, a bored look on her face. Spade was just as stiff and rigid as ever. "Alright, everyone get ready. We're going to intercept those colonists, and find out if they have any more information that we haven't uncovered, as well as helping them out. Are we clear?"

Chora stood up with a nod, Spade snapped off a salute, and Eirika again just fidgeted. Seeing that his orders met no opposition, Vahrg said, "Good. Engineer, can you plot a route to that school building?"

"O-of course sir," she said, rubbing her hands together nervously. Once she'd stopped her ministrations, the engineer pulled up her Omni-Tool and entered a command. "Okay, Captain," she said, "Everyone should have the route programmed into their Omni-Tools."

"Excellent work, Engineer," Vahrg commended, leading the way out of the guard station. The rest of the Turians followed behind him, resuming their previous formation. Chora gave Lent a pointed look, indicating that she wanted to talk to him, but when they reached the threshold to the outside, Vahrg ordered silence.

Left with nothing better to do, Lent observed his surroundings now that they once again trekked through the town. Now that he had been here for more than a few minutes, he could recognize the flavor of the colony: functional. The buildings were drab, even dull, to look at, and the concrete pathway that the squad currently walked on, was smooth and unmarred. It was obvious that the colonists, even with their meager numbers, had no sense of décor. Despite this, the scenery was almost peaceful, and the planet's sun shone brightly.

And it was because of this apparent peace that the metallic scent of human blood stood out against the background. Lent shifted his gaze to the rest of his squad members, and saw that they had noticed the odor as well. "Be on your guard," Vahrg warned as they continued on their route.

It wasn't long until they found the source of the smell. Chora caught sight of the blood first, bringing it to her captain's attention. There was a large streak of the sanguine liquid leading to an alleyway not far from their current position. Lent looked to his captain for confirmation, and Vahrg nodded saying, "Zecht, Tovess, we'll go investigate. Engineer, Corporal, I want you to stand outside the alley and keep watch, I want to know if you see anything suspicious."

Spade responded with a nod and, "Sir," stepping aside so that his teammates could file into the alley. Eirika stayed with the younger Turian, obviously grateful that she wouldn't be needed to inspect whatever gory scene had played out back there.

They found a male human dressed in their equivalent of hard armor slumped against the wall, obviously dead as he lay in a large pool of congealing blood. Taking a closer look at the body, Lent noted that the human was clutching his side when he'd died, as well as finding a hole that went straight through the man's helmet and into his head. The corpse's armor was also missing its chest piece, although, there didn't seem to be any injuries on it anywhere near that location.

Vahrg had Chora run a coroner's scan on the body, which she proceeded to do promptly, all of her sarcasm and joking manner replaced by a cool, businesslike veneer. The field medic gave the results out loud. "The victim took a deep gunshot wound to the right side of his abdomen, and most likely retreated into this alley to hide from his attackers, creating the blood trail we saw earlier. He would have bled out and died eventually, but apparently someone delivered him to his death earlier than that by shooting him in the head at pointblank."

Vahrg sighed. "Is that all, Field Medic?"

"Actually sir, no, it isn't. While I scanned him, I also picked up some sort of message, although I couldn't make any sense of it. We should probably have Engineer Inice take a look at it."

"Alright, I'll go get her," Vahrg replied, moving toward the entrance to the alleyway to fetch the engineer.

While his captain was gone, Lent gave Chora an accusatory look. "You didn't just call her back here because you wanted to make her uncomfortable, did you?"

"What?" said Chora innocently, "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The video is corrupted, there's no way _I _could make any sense of it."

Lent's reply was an amused shake of his head. Before the two had any real chance to banter, Vahrg returned with Eirika in tow. "Engineer," he ordered, "I need you run a scan on this corpse, Chora said she detected some sort of anomaly."

Eirika was obviously uncomfortable and nervous, as she shifted from foot to foot as she answered, "Y-yes sir." The engineer flashed her Omni-Tool, running the scans, and after a moment her eyes widened.

"Inice?" Lent questioned, hoping to prompt her to spill whatever had surprised her. The biotic never did like being left in suspense.

"I don't believe it," she said softly, "Sir, this man, he's the one from the call!"

"What? How?" Vahrg asked, astonished. Lent was also surprised; the Engineer had assured them before that the call had ended a mere forty minutes ago. How could he have died already in such a short amount of time?

"I don't know sir," the engineer replied, perplexed, "but it's true. I found the same signal on him as the one that was in the playback. As for the message that Field Medic Zecht uncovered, it's severely corrupted. It would take me days to piece it together into something intelligible, maybe more. It was set to activate after the wearer's vitals signs stopped, so I assume it's some sort of dying message."

Vahrg sighed again. "Take it with you anyway, Engineer, it might be important. In the meantime, we should continue onto the school and intercept the other colonist. Hopefully she isn't dead as well."

Lent could tell that Vahrg was taking the colonist's death harder than the rest of the team. The captain had set out to save the man, and yet he was probably dead before they even began; a difficult pill for anyone to swallow. Still, there was nothing Lent could do to ease his captain's worries, short of making sure that the other colonist made it out of here alive, a task that would be taxing considering their own survival was not guaranteed.

The school building was not far from them now, it would probably only take them a few moments more to reach it. And, of course, being their destination, it just had to be crawling with the enemy. The Batarians could be seen patrolling the relatively wide open area in front of the school, which was very disadvantageous to the Turians.

As soon as Vahrg saw the Batarians, he directed the squad into cover behind a nearby building. "Alright everyone, this will be our first encounter with the enemy. I don't know what we're going to encounter, so be ready for anything. Lieutenant, how many do you see on the radar?"

"Four, sir," Lent replied, trying to get a feel for what Vahrg was planning.

The captain nodded, pulling his sniper rifle from its resting place on his back. "Okay, I'm going to take cover over there," he said, gesturing with his gun to section of ground where a staircase came down from a building, "And line up a shot. Lieutenant, I need you ready to take out one of them with our biotics when I give the word. I also want Zecht to rush the closest Batarian with her shotgun. If we take them by surprise, this'll be easy. Everyone ready?"

The squad nodded their affirmation, and Vahrg returned it before moving into position. Lent watched the Batarians, making sure they hadn't seen the captain, as well as devising the best way to take one out.

Once Vahrg had moved back into cover, they waited. Lent could see Eirika trying to remain calm, as well as readying some sort of tech blast on her Omni-Tool. Spade apparently also saw what she was doing, and took up a ready position beside her. Chora had unholstered her shotgun once again, and was holding it readily, a broad grin on her face. Lent idly mused that the field medic enjoyed battle far too much for someone with a medical license.

"Now!" Vahrg shouted over the comm., taking the shot and imploding one of the Batarians' heads. Chora needed no more urging, as she ran out of cover and unloaded her shotgun into the nearest enemy, shredding his shields, along with the rest of his body.

Lent let his biotics flow over him as he popped out of cover. Choosing one of the available targets left, the lieutenant initiated a biotic slam on the Batarian, lifting him up into the air before smashing him back down headfirst, snapping the alien's neck.

Eirika followed this by overloading the shields of their final target, and Spade took the opportunity to empty his heat sink into the remaining Batarian.

And just like that, in a few seconds where there had once been four enemies, there were now four corpses. Vahrg walked back to his team, a proud look on his face. "Good job everyone," he commended.

Chora responded to the praise by trying to wipe the Batarian bits off of her armor, Spade replied with a, "Thank you, sir," and Eirika degenerated into a nervous, flustered piece of gelatin that uttered a non-stop string of thank-yous. Lent also took the compliment in silence, although he did add a nod of acknowledgment.

After Vahrg had sufficiently pieced together the engineer into an intelligible person once more, Lent threw a glance toward the building that they'd spent the last twenty minutes or so walking to. It was larger than the homes that Lent had seen on their trek, and also had a sizable space behind it reserved solely for vegetation. Lent glanced at the building's windows, but couldn't make out anything inside through the dark panes of glass. Something about that made the lieutenant uneasy.

"No use standing around out here," Vahrg said, coming up beside the biotic, "Come on Lieutenant, let's get in there."

"Yes sir," Lent replied coolly, following the Turian to front door and pushing his thoughts to the side. It was just a school after all, and they'd already gotten rid of all the hostiles. What could possibly go wrong?

…

As soon as he crossed the threshold, Lent could almost sense that something wasn't right. The entirety of the building's lighting was off, and Eirika had assured them earlier that the power failure in the station was not colony-wide. Lent tensed and drew his pistol, expecting some crazed colonist to jump out of the shadows at any moment. The rest of the team followed suit, with the exceptions of Eirika and Vahrg. He could faintly hear Chora grumble something to the effect of, "It's the friggin' middle of the day, why is it so dark in here?"

The hall of the school was small, but was filled to the brim with lockers. A few doors branched off here and there, no doubt leading to empty classrooms. Lent vaguely wondered how many children had occupied the colony before the attack. Judging by the building's size, there probably weren't very many; not that it made the biotic feel any better about it.

"Engineer," Vahrg uttered softly, beckoning her over, "Run a scan on these rooms to see if our colonist is home."

"Yes s-sir," Eirika replied with her ever present stutter. The engineer flashed her Omni-Tool and waved it back and forth through the air for a few moments. "There are some heat signatures coming from over there, Captain," she said when she finally finished, pointing to a doorway only a few feet from them. "I also enabled the human translation on everyone's Omni-Tools."

"Alright everyone, be on your guard; but don't get trigger happy, we're here to help, not kill her," Vahrg ordered. The other Turians nodded their assent, and Vahrg opened the door.

The room was dark, like the rest of the school. It was medium sized, and held a moderate amount of empty chairs and desks, a depressing reminder of current circumstances. As soon as the door cracked open, the dark silhouette of the human whirled around, pulling something from under her arm at lightning speed, while pushing something else behind her protectively.

The woman's features were harsh, and angry, although that should have come as no surprise. Her skin was a deep tan that reminded Lent of his own coloring. Dark, red-brown locks of the stuff that humans called 'hair' were tied back into a ball behind her head, with the exception of one that hung just beside her left eye. Her eyes were by far her most unsettling feature. While most eyes were uniform in color, hers were a mismatched combination of bright amber and deep violet that sparkled with ferocity. The differentiation was distracting, and made it difficult for Lent to focus on more than one side of her face at a time.

It appeared the colonist was going to shoot first and ask questions later, but before she could get a shot off, Vahrg shouted, "Wait!" while simultaneously motioning for the other Turians to stand down.

She seemed confused for a moment. "W-what?" she stammered. The colonist then shook her head as if to clear it, and tightened her grip on her weapon once more.

Again, Vahrg tried to reason with her. "Please, stop and listen to me!" he pleaded.

Uncertainty flashed in her eyes. While she didn't lower her weapon, the woman asked, "What the hell? Why can I understand you?"

"My name is Captain Vahrg Svent. My team and I are here to help you. Please, put away your gun," the captain tried to negotiate.

The gun stayed where it was, although the human muttered something to herself. "What the fuck? Am I hallucinating or something?" Her glare fixed on Vahrg. "What the hell is this? Who are you? _What_ are you?" she demanded.

"I just told you," the captain replied reasonably, "My name is Vahrg. I am a Turian."

"Turian? I don't know what the hell that means, but at least I'm talking to something that _doesn't _want to kill me right away, even if it is fucking scary looking. Sorry about the gun, but you understand, right?" Good. The human was responding as if they were friendly (well, friendlier) despite the weapon she kept trained on them.

Vahrg nodded in response. "Yes, I understand, but," he gestured to the Turians behind him in the doorway, "You're making my associates uncomfortable."

The woman laughed, although it didn't seem bitter, just tired. "You'll have to forgive me," she said, "But after all this crap; I really don't give a shit if you're uncomfortable. I'd rather stay alive."

"Please understand," Vahrg reasoned, "That keeping your weapon drawn like that right now is putting your life in _danger_, not preserving it."

The colonist shook her head. "Sorry, but I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, and with that heavy looking getup you've got on, that's not very far."

Lent huffed, frustrated. This was getting them nowhere. "Ma'am," he said, although he was stepping out of line, "I know that you don't trust us, but if you don't put your weapon down, _right now_, we'll be forced to subdue you." Vahrg gave Lent a look of surprise, but didn't reprimand him. Apparently the captain was going to allow him to say his piece.

The woman cursed under her breath, thinking the Turians couldn't hear her. "Shit!" she uttered, taking her left hand off her gun and twirling her lock of hair worriedly for a moment. She glared at them suspiciously one last time, and sighed, slumping her shoulders slightly in reluctant acceptance. "Fine. I'll put it down. But if I think for one moment that something's wrong, I'm going to shoot." Cautiously, the colonist lowered the weapon, but didn't return it to its resting place. Lent was impressed. She wasn't stupid, he'd give her that.

Vahrg nodded, and beckoned for the rest of the team to enter the room. Chora took up a position leaning against the wall of the room, Spade stayed near the door, and Eirika found a corner and proceeded to fidget. Vahrg and Lent continued to talk with the human.

She let out a low whistle. "Damn. There sure are a lot of you huh? Now I'm actually kind of glad I put my gun down; holy crap." The woman's stance shifted to a less alert posture, and what was behind her was revealed. What it was almost made Lent go slack jawed.

The thing the colonist was protecting so fiercely was none other than a small human girl. She had very pale, white-yellow hair, much paler skin than her grown up counter part, and light blue eyes. The child clung tightly to her protector's leg, looking at the Turians with fear filled eyes.

The colonist knelt down and whispered what Lent assumed were reassurances to the child. The girl nodded, and the intensity of her gaze lessened, but still remained wary. The woman returned to her standing position, waiting for whatever questions that the Turians had for her. The girl clasped the older human's leg, content to just stare at the newcomers.

"Is she alright?" Vahrg asked softly.

The colonist seemed surprised by the compassion in his voice. "She'll be fine. She's been a little shaken up, but she's a strong girl. She'll pull through." The colonist absently reached down and ruffled the child's hair.

Lent got a closer look at the woman. Her features had softened considerably, but she still seemed to regard them with suspicion. The woman was dressed in a thin top that showed off her shoulders and neckline, although it probably had no significance in human culture. Her lower half was confined in leggings made from a blue material that Lent couldn't identify. What was interesting to note, however, was the obvious knife she had strapped to her thigh, and the familiarity with which she handled the gun in her hand.

"Not to seem rude…" the colonist trailed off before continuing, "But, if you don't mind my asking, are you guys the ones that made all that racket outside?"

Lent humored her request. "Yes, some Batarians were in the way and we were forced to…" he cleared his throat slightly, "…dispatch them."

"Batarians?" she asked, inquisitive. "You mean those four-eyed freaks?"

"Yes."

The colonist shook her head, bewildered. "Okay then. So, do you guys know what's going on here? And how did you find me?"

Vahrg replied this time. "We believe that this is a slave run. Obviously, the Batarians would make a large amount of money selling slaves of one of the newest sapient races in the galaxy."

She gave what looked like a scowl, a disgusted look on her face. "And how you found me?" she asked, her voice curling unintentionally in distaste for the thought of slavery, a sentiment that Lent could agree with.

"We were able to retrieve a playback of a transmission between you, and another colonist. It said you were coming here, so here we are." Vahrg neglected to mention the woman's friend was dead, so Lent decided to keep quiet about that as well.

The colonist nodded, suddenly disinterested, and began to rub specific points on her head. At the Turians questioning gazes, when she finally noticed them, the colonist merely said, "Headache."

After she'd composed herself she queried, "Well, listen, this has been a wonderful chat and all, but what do you people want? I don't understand what you guys gain from finding me."

Lent answered, getting straight to the point. "We wanted to see if you had any information on how to get off this planet. We've been to your guard station, and all your comms are down, so we were wondering if there was an alternate method of leaving."

Disappointingly, the woman said, "No. The only way to leave is via a ship that the colony doesn't have, you have to phone the Alliance or a private company and charter one to get out of here."

"Is there any way other form of communications that we can use to get a ship?" Vahrg questioned.

The woman nodded and Lent surged with joy. They could get off this rock! "There's a comms tower on the other side of the mountain. It's completely disconnected from the colony's grid and is only used in emergencies, so it isn't even active at the moment."

"Can we power it?" Needless to say, Lent was excited.

"Of course, it's to be used in emergencies remember? Anyone can use it."

"How do we get there?" Vahrg said.

"I can take you… on one condition." The wicked smile on her lips almost made Lent groan out loud. Whatever she wanted, it wouldn't be easy for the Turians.

"And what would that be?" Vahrg asked, crossing his arms and shifting slightly.

"I want to join you and your team until we get there, and I want you to help me keep my…" the woman seemed to hesitate for a moment, but soon a warm smile lit across her face. Gazing down at the child next to her the woman continued, "...daughter safe."

Vahrg seemed to consider her request for a moment. "Are you sure you can trust us?" he asked.

"No, but you haven't shot me yet. Besides, I can't keep her safe by myself, she's too young. Despite my better judgment, I'd rather tag along with you guys; even if you are scary alien people." Lent let go of an amused smirk when she said the last part, even though it was true. Turians, with their sharp teeth and talons, were considered to be one of the more intimidating species.

Vahrg replied with an amused shake of his head. "I'll have to discuss this with the rest of my team," he said, gesturing the other Turians in the room.

"Of course," she replied reasonably, "But do try to hurry, I don't want to wait too long, lest we get attacked or some other nonsense. I get the strangest feeling that if I join up with you guys, I'll get to see enough of that crap to last me a lifetime. No need to add to it."

With that, Vahrg and Lent walked away from the pair of humans, and the captain beckoned the others over to them.

Vahrg started off with, "She knows of a way to communicate off world, and wants to join us," effectively getting straight to the point. "I, for one, believe that we should allow it."

"I'm game," Chora piped up, "I heard your entire conversation anyway." The field medic smiled evilly. "I like her. She's feisty. What about you Tovess?"

Lent leveled the dark-blue Turian with a questioning gaze. "I'm okay with it. Besides, she can help us get off this spirits-forsaken planet. That alone is enough for me to get along with her."

"I- I'm okay with it too," Eirika interceded with her nearly ever-present stutter. The Turians turned their heads to Spade. Lent, for some reason, believed that the Turian would protest to bringing a human, and he was half right.

"I don't like the idea of escorting a _human_," the corporal began, spitting out the race's name with disdain, "But if she can get us out of here, I won't complain." Lent tried not to scoff at the irony of that statement. Chora didn't.

"Well," the captain said, glaring daggers at the field medic for her childish behavior. Chora returned an innocent gaze, and he continued dryly, "It seems we are all in agreement then. Lieutenant."

"Yes sir?" That was odd. Why was the captain addressing him? They'd already decided that they were going to bring the colonist along, what else could Vahrg _possibly_ need?

"I have decided that you are going to protect the two of them."

Lent gave his captain the most confused look he could muster without making a fool out of himself. "Sir, I don't really think that's necessary. The woman's tough, she can take care of herself." It wasn't that he was reluctant about escorting the human; he just didn't want to waste resources on someone who didn't need help.

Surprisingly, Vahrg nodded, and that was what made Lent suddenly regret his protest. "I have absolutely no doubts that she can, but she can't take care of her daughter and watch out for herself at the same time. And we _need _her alive. You have the best chance of keeping her safe with your biotics."

Lent sighed. He saw the captain's point. "What do I need to do?" the biotic asked in resignation.

"All you have to do is stay close to them and give them barriers when they need them. That's all."

Lent nodded his assent, letting any sort of protest he might have had fall silent. He was going to go through with the order anyway, so what was the point in complaining?

Lent saluted his captain, and taking the initiative, walked back over to where the human colonist sat with her daughter, murmuring to the child. When she noticed his approach, the colonist looked up at him with what he assumed was a guarded look on her face. "So," she asked, "What's the verdict?"

"You will be allowed to accompany us," Lent stated formally, "I have been assigned to protect you in event of an attack."

"I never asked to be babied," the woman scowled distastefully before continuing with a less hostile expression, "But I'm not stupid. If you're going to help me out, I'll gladly accept."

Well that made things easier, All Lent needed was an uncooperative colonist on his hands. The biotic was drawn out of his thought as she continued to speak. "You got a name white-face?" she asked.

Absently, Lent traced a talon on his colony marks at her reference. "Lieutenant Lent Tovess," he told her. He watched as her eyes lingered on his talon as he pulled it away from his head, amused.

"So then Lieutenant," she began, shifting her gaze to his face once more, "Do you trust me not to shoot you in the back?"

She must have known the answer, but Lent replied anyway, wanting to see her reaction. "No."

She laughed. "Good. I wouldn't want an idiot watching my back."

Lent eyed her amusedly. "Do you have a name human? Or should I just refer to you as _the colonist_?" he asked in jest. At least he wouldn't be bored around her.

She seemed to hesitate for a moment at the question, rubbing those spots on her head again. When she finally stopped, the colonist still seemed to have trouble getting the words out. "My name…" she trailed off before becoming sure of herself once more. "Rachael. My name is Rachael."

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**AN: Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you all soon!**

******Okay, one more thing and then I promise to shut up. I was wondering if you guys would rather have the chapters split up between our two main characters and be shorter with faster updates, or if you would like them to be together in one big mega update. This chapter is an exception, as I'm pretty sure I won't be writing any eight-thousand word sections from here on. Anyway, please let me know, and have a wonderful day! Or don't, I guess, if you wanna be that way...**


	4. Day 0: Introductions

**AN: Well hullo there everyone. It's been awhile. Sorry for taking so long to update, and doubly so for the shorter chapter today. Excuses will be at the bottom for those who care, so for now, enjoy!**

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Tezuno, School Building

June 10, 2157

3:50 P.M.

A few things about Turians:

1.) Talons and teeth, always armed and dangerous.

2.) Plating. Can't stop bullets (or at least the kinds of bullets that other races use) but is useful in hand to hand.

3.) Enhanced senses. Is there any more to say than that?

4.) Mandibles. _Frigging. Mandibles._

All in all: Rachael was jealous. Well, maybe not of the mandibles, those were kind of… yeah, but the other stuff was _totally _not fair. Come on, why couldn't humans get all that awesome crap? Stupid evolution.

Lent had spent the last twenty or so minutes updating Rachael on the current alien technologies, like kinetic barriers, gun mechanics, Omni-Tools, tech blasts and all sorts of other stuff she needed to know. Thank god she was a fast learner; otherwise she wouldn't have been able to keep up with all this crap. It was also 'interesting' to find out that Turian smiles involved the baring of their friggin' sharp ass teeth, something that had scared the shit out of Rachael the first time, before Lent explained what he was doing.

It stung to know that her Beretta would be near useless against hard armor and shields. In fact, the only use it had would be point blank headshots, something that you usually didn't get the opportunity for. Still, at least all of this information was interesting, despite making Rachael's head spin. Lent wasn't being long winded in his explanations, so she had no problems cataloging all the important stuff. Rachael was sure that Holly had grown bored of the conversation, and had probably turned to stare at the other Turians with unmitigated curiosity.

Lent, apparently, was going to protect her and her daughter in event of some kind of altercation, although how he would do so was completely beyond her. Rachael glanced at the Turian with tan coloring and white facial marks one more time to remind herself that this was _not_ some really elaborate acid trip, and that she was, in fact, quite sane.

The idea to question her mental health had entered Rachael's head when she'd suddenly come to with Holly in her arms and blood on her hands; as well as the whole, referring to herself as Rachael thing. Honestly, she'd woken up to freakier things, but that was _not _fun. The residual headaches were bad enough, but what really scared the crap out of her was the fact that she didn't remember _anything _from when she first saw the Batarians, to suddenly regaining awareness.

Did she mention the blood? That was probably the worst. As soon as Rachael noticed that she'd left a red hand print in her daughter's hair, she'd scurried off to the bathroom to wash like she had just spilled acid on herself. As for the 'Rachael' thing, that had really only come up a few minutes ago when she'd given her name to the lieutenant. It wasn't that she was a different person or anything, at least Rachael didn't feel like she was; there just wasn't any point in remaining Stacey anymore considering that nearly everyone who ever knew her by that name was either missing or…

Rachael stopped her train of thought right there, being assaulted by another headache. Stupid things just wouldn't leave her alone. Rachael rubbed her temples in a vain attempt to lessen the throbbing, but in the end she had to wait it out. When she looked up again, the Turian across from her was looking at her with inquisitive eyes. Or, at least she assumed so; it was kinda hard to tell considering the whole alien thing.

"Are those going to be a problem?" he asked not unkindly, in that flanging voice his kind had.

"I appreciate the concern," she said truthfully, even if the concern was only because he thought she might be a liability, "But I'll be fine. I just need a little time to absorb all this. Not every day you wake up and suddenly find yourself surrounded by six-foot tall giants with facial tattoos." That was another thing about Turians: they were all friggin' _huge_. The shortest one, the white Turian, was like 6' 1". Nuts, right?

"Alright then," Lent replied with a nod, although his eyes told her that he didn't believe her, "I think we're done with everything you need to know. I'll get the captain and the others." With that, the Turian quickly stood up and went over to and his squad members.

Rachael said nothing in reply, instead turning to her daughter. That was yet _another_ thing that was different since waking up. She never thought of Holly as a cute little sister, but as a daughter; her child. She'd always been weirded out by the thought of being called a mom, but now, stupid insecurities like that meant little to her.

Holly was starting to worry her though. She hadn't spoken at all since Rachael had woken up with the little girl in her arms. Holly had been content to stare at the Turians but had done nothing more than that, continually clutching Rachael's leg. This all must have been a terrible shock for a six year old little girl, but the former bartender hoped that her daughter would come back to her soon.

Rachael knelt down to the child and whispered in her ear, explaining that the 'nice people' were all going to come over and chat, and telling the girl not to be frightened. Rachael didn't know if Holly even noticed, but she guessed she would find out if the girl started to scream in a few moments.

Thankfully, when the five aliens with their strange blue armor walked toward the two humans, no earsplitting wail rang through the air. Rachael quickly straightened, and fixed the Turians with the most confident gaze she could muster. She had to show them that she wasn't weak, or a milquetoast of any sort. The price of not trusting your allies…

They all towered over her, and each had their own unique markings on their faces, with the exceptions of the captain and his lieutenant. Rachael idly wondered if the two were related.

The aliens' most interesting features, to Rachael anyway, were their eyes. All of the orbs that now scrutinized her were striking and seemed to pierce through any thin facade she might have erected. The scleras of their eyes were black, making their irises shine like beacons.

Rachael shook herself inwardly. Why did having heterochromia have to turn her into an eye nut?

Lent approached first. The lieutenant was a Turian of tan coloring and had a white facial tattoo that sprawled across his hard face. From what little exposure she had to him, Rachael had gleaned that Lent had a closed off personality, and on the surface, appeared to be completely unfazed by the happenings around him. However, he did seem to have a humorous side, evidenced by the few sarcastic remarks she'd heard him utter during his explanations. His eyes were a deep ocean blue, and he was one of the taller Turians of the group, clocking in at around 6' 5".

"What's going on?" Rachael asked, curious as to why the remaining Turians chose to stay in the background.

"The captain wanted to formally introduce you to the others before you take us to the tower," was Lent's explanation. This piqued Rachael's interest. An alien meet n' greet.

A Turian with dark blue coloring and purple facial tattoos stepped forward boldly, with an expression that seemed mischievous even to Rachael. Its armor looked like it had been virtually dipped in blood, although it didn't _seem _bothered by that fact. Five hours ago, Rachael would have run for the hills screaming. Now, she almost didn't care; as if being covered in the blood of your enemies was the most normal thing in the world. Or galaxy. Whatever.

"Hey," it said in a feminine voice, a trait that startled the human considering she looked just like the males of the species, although she did look a tad slimmer, and her head spikes were _slightly_ shorter. "I'm Chora Zecht," she continued, "The team's field medic. I don't know how to treat humans, so try not to get shot."

The Turian's tone was playful, or at least Rachael assumed so. Either way, no matter the species apparently, it wasn't hard to spot a smart-ass when you saw one. Rachael had the added advantage of being one herself, so classifying Chora wasn't a particularly difficult task that required the burning of more than a few brain cells. "Sorry," the human said in reply, "But I just _love _bullets. It's going to be _really_ hard to stay out of the line of fire for more than a few minutes, so I hope you're a fast learner." Rachael finished the rebuttal with a sarcastic smirk peeking out from the corners of her mouth.

Chora possibly responded in kind - Turian style, of course – but Rachael couldn't really tell. She'd been around the Turians for maybe more than half an hour. Not like she was an expert. The human knew for sure when Chora replied in a playful, cocky tone, "Luckily for you, I am. So, are you going to tell me your name, or are we just going to stand here chatting?"

"Rachael Aureus," the former bartender told the Turian, placing a hand on her chest to indicate that it was her name. "This," she continued, gesturing to her daughter, "Is Holly Shale." Rachael was grieved by a twinge of her headache after she said the surname, but she ignored it.

"You two don't share a surname?" Chora asked, curious.

"It's complicated," was all Rachael said. She didn't feel like explaining the entire situation right now, as her headache was coming back with a vengeance. Stupid aspirin wasn't doing its job. So much for modern medicine, if this kept up, Rachael might actually start believing they were migraines.

Chora let the subject drop with a nod. A quick glance at Lent, who now stood off to the side, told her that this was not typical behavior, as the lieutenant wore an expression that could only be described as dumbfounded. The other Turians mirrored this, although they were less open with their disbelief. Vahrg, however, just looked extremely amused; although if this was at his subordinates' looks of shock, or just Chora, Rachael didn't know.

The field medic shot a well-meaning glare at Lent before returning a softer gaze to Rachael and her daughter. "It's been a pleasure meeting you," she said in a scathingly civil tone, obviously to make light of her fellows' reactions. Chora then retreated back toward the shadowy walls of the room, humor twinkling in her bright green eyes, and Rachael let out a small chuckle. If all the Turians were this 'colorful', then this little alliance might be entertaining, as well as practically beneficial.

The next Turian stepped forward. Rachael assumed that this one was also female, as she was slightly slimmer than the two confirmed males, and even Chora. Her gait was tentative, and the human frowned. This woman didn't carry herself like a soldier, unlike the others.

"H-hello," she stuttered, her timid demeanor coming across in her soft speech. "My name is Eirika Inice. I'm an engineer. I-it's nice to meet you Miss Aureus."

Although it didn't sound like Eirika really thought it was nice to meet her, Rachael gave the white Turian with teal facial tattoos a smile. "The same goes for me, Miss Inice," she said, hoping the engineer would pick up on the double meaning.

Unfortunately, she didn't. The Turian woman looked extremely uncomfortable under Rachael's gaze, her yellow eyes flitting about the room, looking at everything but the humans in front of her.

Feeling merciful, and a crap ton of pity for the nervous techie, Rachael gave the woman a dismissive nod. Eirika took it gratefully, scurrying back to her shadowy corner, effectively removing her from the congregation.

Rachael shot Lent an inquisitive look, - she was starting to look to him for interpretation - but he didn't say or do anything to indicate his opinion, so she shifted her gaze to the third and final Turian she hadn't had the 'pleasure' of meeting in the initial encounter.

The light green male gave her a cold, appraising glance. "Corporal Spade Verio," he said curtly. Then he slowly and deliberately switched his hard, grey gaze to an apparently extremely interesting portion of the wall, his black facial markings blending in perfectly with the shadows now casted on them.

Rachael blinked, confused. Then, shrugging, she muttered, "Friendly, isn't he?"

Although she hadn't meant to be heard, Chora snorted from her perch on the wall, and said, "Understatement." Vahrg threw her an admonishing glare, and she clammed up immediately, obviously trying very hard not to smile. Rachael inwardly cursed the Turians' enhanced senses. If Chora heard it, then the corporal certainly did as well. _Way to go Rachael_, she thought sarcastically, _you always were good at making friends_.

Sighing slightly, the captain of the Turians stepped forward. Vahrg was a Turian of dark brown coloring, aqua-marine eyes, and a white facial tattoo that was identical to Lent's.

"Please excuse my subordinates and their less than… hospitable behavior." Vahrg said, giving Spade the same look he'd given Chora. The corporal looked extremely embarrassed by this, and continued to stare at the wall. A glance to the field medic showed that she enjoyed that particular gesture immensely.

Rachael shrugged again. "No biggie," she replied, "I didn't really expect to be welcomed with open arms after muscling my way into your group. They have a right to be distrustful." It really didn't bother her. Rachael was nothing if not a realist, bordering on pessimistic sometimes, and she could understand that newcomers, _especially _of a different race entirely, were not always welcomed. As such, she had no problem with Eirika's nerves or Spade's coldness. Annoyance maybe, but no problems. It was to be expected after all.

"Thank you, Miss Aureus," Vahrg said, perhaps not understanding the phrase, but instead her body language. "But now, if you wouldn't mind telling us, what is your plan? What were you going to do before my team and I showed up?"

"Same thing I'm doing now; go to the tower, call for help. I just happened to pick up some extra protection along the way." Rachael's plans hadn't changed, but she wondered if the Turians wanted anything else besides those two things. Of course, Rachael planned on making some pit stops along the way, something she was hoping they would be discussing shortly.

To her satisfaction, Lent moved into view, asking, "Details please?"

Rachael gave the lieutenant a nod. "I was planning on making a stop at the colony's department store to grab some supplies before taking a vehicle and heading to the tower. Is that alright with you guys?" Of course she was pretty sure that they wouldn't mind at all, but hey, it never hurt to ask, and showing some minor deference, or at least appreciation, to and of the Turians' opinions might earn the former bartender some extra points.

"That's fine, Miss Aureus," Vahrg replied, "But we will need to add a destination before you take us to the tower."

"Shoot," Rachael told him. Then, fearing he would take the expression perhaps a bit too literally, she added, "We can go anywhere you want. I've pretty much got all the time in the world. The benefits of not having a job now that everyone's…" Rachael trailed off in the middle of her snarky remark, being smacked in the head with a large wooden mallet. Or maybe it was just another one of her headaches. That made more sense.

"We need to head back to our escape pod and gather all of the rations that we left there, as it may take some time for a ship to arrive, and my team will need the food in the meantime," Vahrg replied, his eyes flashing as if he was remembering something unpleasant.

"Okay, but two things first: 1.) Why can't you just grab food from around here; and 2.) Escape pod? What?" Rachael was kind of confused about those. Sure, maybe they just wanted to eat food native to wherever they came from, but going out of their way to an escape pod for tasty morsels when there was a lot of sustenance readily available _closer_ to them, didn't make a lot of sense. Oh, and, you know, the whole escape pod thing in general.

Lent answered her first. "The whole reason we're looking for a way off of this planet is because we crash landed here in an escape pod after the Batarians attacked our ship. As for the rations, we can't eat levo food. At best, we wouldn't receive any nutrition from it, and at worst we would die of anaphylactic shock."

Rachael gave the lieutenant an appraising glance. He'd just relayed all of this information deadpan, and she was kind of surprised that he was throwing the words 'anaphylactic shock' and 'crash landed' around so casually. Still, that didn't stop her from asking the next obvious question: "Why?"

Chora cleared her throat, and Rachael finally noticed that she'd walked away from her perch on the wall, and had joined their little discussion. "I'll give you the details later, Rache," the Turian said, using a nickname, "But right now, all you need to know is that we can't eat your food, so we have to go get our food." The former bartender smirked, and allowed the sign of familiarity to slide. She may not have trusted Chora, but Rachael definitely liked her.

Lent looked at Rachael, but didn't seem surprised by her response. When he'd been explaining the general overview of current tech, she had probably filled him with enough sarcastic commentary for the lieutenant to recognize the similarities between her and Chora. Vahrg, however, not having as much exposure, looked slightly confused. Still he said nothing about it, and the conversation continued.

"I'll hold you to that, Chora," Rachael said deliberately, earning a wide Turian grin from the field medic. "Now then; let's review, so I can get this straight. We're going to head to the commercial district, get a car, go to the store to do some 'shopping', make our way to your escape pod to grab your food because apparently the lot of you are picky eaters, and then we'll head for the comm. tower. Sound about right?"

"Yup," Chora replied with considerable verve. Vahrg and Lent both gave a couple of nods, although the lieutenant seemed amused by both Chora's and Rachael's behaviors.

"Cool. Give me a few minutes to get ready, and we can be on our way," Rachael said in an obvious dismissal.

Chora quickly left to gather Spade, while Vahrg went to get Eirika. Lent opted to stay behind, although for what reason, Rachael didn't know, nor did she really care. Taking Holly's hand, the former bartender led them over to where she'd stashed her bag, in the corner that was closest to them. She let go of the child for a brief moment to shrug the pack on, and then knelt down to address her daughter, forgetting Lent even existed.

"Holly?" Rachael questioned, "We're leaving. I need you to be on your best behavior, and most importantly, to be quiet and stay close to me. Can you do that for me?"

The little girl nodded, bright blue orbs bouncing wordlessly. At this rate, Rachael was becoming afraid that her daughter would go mute, something that would only be remedied with time. The former bartender squeezed Holly into a quick hug, stood up, and led her by the hand back over to the Turian that was supposed to be their guard.

"I'm ready," she told him, "Let's get this show on the road."

Lent nodded, but gave her a confused look. Rachael assumed it was because of the expression, but she didn't elaborate. He was a smart boy… raptor thing; he could figure it out by himself.

Rachael trotted over to Vahrg, Lent and Holly in tow. The rest of the Turians had gathered behind the captain, and Rachael gave them a nod. Turning her attention to their leader, she said, "Are your people ready to bounce? I don't know what kind of attention you guys attracted by killing four of their guys, and I kinda don't want to be around to find out."

Vahrg gave Rachael the now familiar curious glance that told her he had not understood her expression. It was rather inconvenient, considering she used them all the time, but she would have to get used to speaking plainly, boring as it was. Still, he seemed to get the gist of what she was getting at, as he replied, "We are able to leave as soon as you are, Miss Aureus. Do you know of any alternate exits, aside from the front door?"

"Yeah. There's a side entrance that's used for deliveries. It leads to an alley that breaks into the main road. If we use it, we might be able to traverse the colony fairly undetected, as opposed to taking the front and getting shot at the entire way. Still, it's your call." Not like Rachael could order the Turians to follow her after all.

Vahrg gestured to the classroom's open doorway. "Lead the way then," he told her. Rachael nodded, and blazed the trail out of the school building without a second thought.

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**AN: Okay, so. Here we are, at the end of the chapter. Explanation time. Between vacation, writer's block, general laziness, and the next part being an action sequence, suffice it to say I had some trouble writing recently. Hopefully that will be over, and I'll be able to update again sometime this month. I want to, again, thank everyone for the new alerts, and also for checking to see if this story has been updated yet. You don't know how encouraging it was to see people look at this story everyday. It made me feel really good to know that people were anticipating this chapter.**

**That being said, I have two more things on my author's note agenda for today: 1.) I looked at the summary the other day and saw a their/they're mistake on it. Obviously I've now fixed this, but it still was a huge blow to my poor pride. 2.) I've tried to refrain from doing this but... please leave a review! It's really nice to know what people are thinking, and I do tend to write a _lot_ faster after I've received one... so yeah. Do that please.  
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**Okay, now that I've bumped this chapter up to four-thousand words with that insanely long author's note, thanks for reading! Au revoir! (Is that spelled right?)**


	5. Day 0: Preparation

**AN: Hey everyone! How have you all been? So, a couple of things before I let you read: 1.) I first must apologize for the lack of the promised action sequence in this chapter. My brain decided that it wanted all of my characters to have another nice long chat-a-thon before we got to that, so my apologies if the story is going a bit slow with this chapter. 2.) Important status update will be at the bottom, so make sure you read it.**

**Finally, I want to thank you guys for the new alerts, faves, and reviews once more. You all are truly awesome.  
**

**UPDATE 9/15/12: You may have noticed that the chapters are a bit nicer looking now, with less of those pesky little spelling and grammatical errors. You have my wonderful new beta, R3aper, to thank for that. Give him a round of applause! Or you can grovel, I'm sure he'll appreciate that as well! In other news, sorry I'm taking so long to update this, I've working on a little side project recently. Don't worry I'll get back to this soon!  
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**Enjoy!**

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Terra Zenith Colony #1, Alleyway  
June 10, 2157  
4:15 P.M.

Rachael Aureus was, at least in Lent's opinion, amusing. The human was quite brash and very casual when it came to formalities. She was similar to Chora in the way that she always had a wisecrack spilling from her mouth, or at the very least, waiting to be uttered. Despite her casual demeanor, the colonist seemed to try her very hardest not to step on anyone's toes, and was very closed off. Rachael gave almost no hints about herself or about her life unsolicited, and Lent had a feeling that it wouldn't be too easy to gather that information even if you asked the human outright. What was even more, the colonist was protective of her daughter almost to a fault, her feelings for the child sometimes overriding her usually agreeable manner. But, in the end, the human treated the Turians with as much (relative) respect as she could likely muster, so Lent returned the favor.

If her mother was the personable one of the two, the opposite could be said of Holly. The child was very quiet, staying silent at all times, even when addressed by the older human. However, the girl did seem observant, as if she was choosing to remain mute, but still understood her surroundings, although most likely from her six year old perspective. Holly was very dependent on Rachael, and often did whatever she was told by the older woman.

Humans were rather odd. The physical forms of the females of the species very closely resembled that of Asari, albeit without the biotics, blue skin and head crests. Rachael even had those mounds of flesh that were positioned on most Asari's chests. Of actual import, however, was the fact that their expressions were also very similar, if not downright identical, to those of Asari. Noticing this had given Lent a very large advantage in trying to understand the myriad of emotions that would swiftly play across Rachael's face for only moments at a time.

Anyway, protecting Rachael was bound to be an… _interesting _experience, to say the least. The human's nature was not that of someone who would like to wait idly on the sidelines, but at least she didn't seem in any hurry to die. Hopefully she would be smart and stay out of the Turians' way if it came to a direct confrontation with the Batarians. Or perhaps, _when_ it came to a confrontation with the Batarians.

The lieutenant had been following the human closely as they walked through the singular hallway of the school building to the side entrance that the colonist had spoken of. Even absorbed in his thoughts, the biotic still kept a close eye on their surroundings.

The alley they emerged into probably couldn't be called as such. It was lightly shaded by the two buildings that made it, but remained well lit by the sun's rays. The space was actually rather large, and could easily accommodate the five Turians and two humans that comprised their group. The alley had a solid, concrete back wall that partitioned it away from the large, open expanse of grass behind the school building.

When they hit the outside, Lent was surprised to smell blood close by. Apparently, Rachael was as well, since her head snapped around wildly, and she let go of her daughter's hand. Lent might have wondered how she knew what the most common known bodily fluid smelled like if his eyes hadn't immediately alighted on the source of the odor, a dead Batarian lying face down on the ground in a pool of his own drying blood.

"What the hell happened to that guy?" Rachael asked, placing a hand over her daughter's eyes. Holly didn't even seem to register the action, or perhaps was just resigned to it. The older human looked stiff, as if the sight of the Batarian seriously grieved her. Lent would have chalked that up to not being around dead bodies very often, but he very seriously doubted it.

Chora answered her. "Dunno… I'll take a look." The field medic pulled up her Omni-Tool and ran a scan. "Whoa… somebody slit this Batarian's throat. That's a really painful way to go, not to mention whoever did it would have had to be super sneaky." Chora seemed to muse for a moment, then her eyes brightened slightly. "Wait a minute. Rachael, how did you get past all of those guards and into the school undetected anyway?"

The human probably didn't hear her. As soon as Chora had said 'slit' Rachael had stiffened further, her hand leaving Holly's face and instantly cradling her head. She groaned slightly, and started to shift off balance, staggering forward a few steps, her expression contorted into a grimace.

Lent was slightly surprised. Sure, he had been worried that her headaches would be a slight problem, but this was a new one. The reason she'd given him as to why she was plagued by these grievances was weak, and the biotic was now fairly sure that it had been a complete fabrication.

Rachael stumbled again, and this time she tripped, the only thing keeping her from falling flat on her face being Lent's hand, which had hooked onto her arm the moment she had lost her balance. Rachael stopped moving and stood in place, her breaths labored and harsh. Her pained expression didn't leave her face for several moments, but eventually her breathing slowed and returned to a normal rhythm.

Once Rachael had collected herself she looked down at Lent's gloved hand. The lieutenant expected her to recoil from his touch now that she was aware of it, but instead the colonist merely nodded at him to let go, as well as to signal some small amount of gratitude. The biotic responded in kind and relinquished his grasp.

Rachael looked to Holly, and the child was staring at her mother worriedly. The colonist gave the girl a reassuring pat on the head, then reached down to her side and pulled her knife from its sheath. It was covered in dried red blood.

"Well that settles it," she muttered in a voice so soft that even Lent, who was standing right beside her, could barely hear, "I'm officially bat-shit crazy." Rachael stared at the knife for a moment, while the Turians stared at her in turn. Eventually she said, "I'm sorry, I need a few moments," and walked off to sit against the wall of the residence that made up the other side of the alley. Holly followed and sat beside her mother, twining her own hand and the older colonist's empty one together.

While they did so, Lent tried to gauge the reactions of his fellow teammates. Spade looked decidedly miffed with the human, and more than a little suspicious, but considering the corporal's personality and his 'warm' greeting earlier, that didn't come as much of a surprise. Eirika didn't seem any different that she did a few moments ago, so she was either okay with having a mentally unstable guide come with them, or was too nervous to voice her concerns. Chora and Vahrg both wore the same worried look, showing their concern over the human's behavior.

Lent walked over to the field medic. "So…" he began conversationally, "How do _you_ feel about having human that might or might not be insane as our guide?"

Chora was surprisingly serious in her response. "I can't say I like the iffy-ness of the prospect, but I doubt she's really crazy. Rachael certainly didn't seem so earlier, so perhaps this is some sort of delayed post traumatic stress reaction. Your entire colony disappearing in the matter of a few hours isn't something that normal civilians deal with easily."

The field medic's words certainly rang true to Lent. Rachael was tough, he'd give her that, but she was still a normal person before the invasion. Innate toughness didn't really translate well on this scale; it took training to keep it together in such situations; or experience with them, something that he doubted the human had too much of.

Chora continued on in a more playful tone, "Even if she is certifiably insane, Rache's the only chance we've got of getting off of this rock. Nothing we can do about it."

"How… inconvenient. As an aside, Zecht, how did you get so chummy with our human friend anyway?" Lent had to admit, it was rather odd to hear Chora call the colonist by a nickname and get away with it, even if it wasn't much of a surprise. If the biotic had done something like that, he was fairly sure he would have drawn much worse of a lot on that gamble.

Chora gave him a wicked grin. "Oh, Tovess," she said, "If you really want to know, ask her yourself. I'm sure she wouldn't mind explaining to you."

Lent was quite positive that the human _would _indeed mind, so he snorted and replied sarcastically, "Yeah, I'll get right on that Zecht." The biotic then shifted his attention to the prone form of their guide. Rachael looked far off and distant, as if she wasn't really experiencing the current set of events. Lent could understand to a point. If he had a psychological breakdown, he would probably get a little introspective as well.

The human suddenly looked up at him, returning his stare. Although he was rather embarrassed, the biotic didn't break her gaze, and after a moment she gave a wan smile. Rachael stood, pulling Holly up with her, and sheathed the knife that had been occupying her vision for the past few moments.

The human walked over to them, instructing her smaller counterpart to close her eyes against the sight of the Batarian's corpse. Rachael looked slightly nervous, something that she had never deigned to do since their meeting. "Well, um… how to put this? I guess I just have to come out and say it. Long story short: I'm the one who killed that Batarian."

"I don't understand," Chora said immediately in confusion, "A few moments ago you asked what had happened to him. If you're the one who killed him, how could you not know?"

Rachael seemed to be squirming in place, as if she was extremely uncomfortable and reluctant to continue speaking. In the end, her elaboration was only, "I'll give you the details later, for now, all you need to know is that I didn't remember doing it until I had my mini freak-out."

It wasn't a good enough answer; the human must have known that. There were holes in her explanation that needed to be filled, such as _why_ she couldn't remember it until now, and _how_ in the galaxy she'd managed to kill the Batarian. She had promised to provide specifics later on, but the Turians didn't know if there would be enough time later on to discuss this.

Still, Chora didn't pry – again, which was starting to confuse Lent. Usually she was nosier than this – and just replied in an exasperated tone, "Fine. I need to go tell the Captain about this," before walking off. It was rather unnecessary of her to go report – Vahrg had probably heard every word they'd said. Perhaps she just wanted to discuss with Vahrg without the human knowing.

Rachael muttered to herself, possibly forgetting about the Turians' advanced hearing again. "She's being serious. This doesn't bode well."

Despite the fact that she was talking to herself, Lent responded. "We're just worried," he told her, "You're our only chance of getting off of this planet, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Rachael replied with a sigh. "I guess it doesn't help my case much that my mental stability is less than sparkling. At this rate you guys will probably think me a phony and abandon my crazy ass. Not that I would blame you."

Lent shook his head. "The Captain would never abandon you and your daughter, even if you _are_ lying. He'd be furious, sure, but he wouldn't leave you to die."

Rachael let go of a small smirk. "Look at you, being all reassuring to someone you barely know. Well, thanks for that anyway, even if I don't believe you for a moment. Still, it's a nice fantasy to hide behind."

"I didn't think you the cynical type, Miss Aureus."

"Not cynical, just realistic." Rachael's tone was tired, as if she'd had this kind of conversation before. "Anyway," she said walking over to the Batarian corpse with Lent following behind her, "I think it's time I grabbed some new hardware."

She searched the body as if the fact that it had once been a living creature didn't affect her. The colonist pulled a _Batarian State Arms_ Judgment pistol from the Batarian's hip. It looked to be low grade, but would serve her better than the almost prehistoric gun she had been using up to this point. It had been funny to find out that they were being held at gunpoint by something so low powered that it might not have even punched through the Turians' natural plating, let alone their shields.

Something on the ground near their cadaver caught Lent's eye. In addition to his sidearm, the Batarian had been similarly outfitted with an assault rifle. Judging by the gun's appearance and the other weapon the corpse had on him, it was probably a Terminator series. Walking over to scoop it up, Lent did find that the assault rifle was indeed of _Batarian State Arms _manufacture, although it was low tier. Still, he compressed the weapon and magnetized it to his back. It wasn't his old Thunder, but it would serve Lent to have something other than his pistol and his biotics to fall back on. Rachael grumbled something about him getting an assault rifle while she only obtained, to quote, 'a shitty pistol', causing the Turian to let go of a small chuckle. It seemed she'd recovered from the black mood that had settled over her due to her 'reaction'.

Rachael seemed to have some trouble figuring out where she would put the pistol. If she were wearing hard armor, she probably could have just magnetized the Judgment to her hip. As it was, the human eventually shoved the gun into the back of her leggings, her holster being much too small for the heavy pistol.

It was after watching this with great amusement that Lent heard it; the sound of hard boots pounding on concrete. His eyes whipped to the other Turians to see them tensed up and on high alert. Rachael looked confused, but her face set into a serious expression and she instructed her daughter to stay close to her, as if she hadn't been doing that all along. The human moved up beside Lent, her hand clasped around her daughter's much smaller appendage. "What's going on?" she asked in an urgent whisper.

Lent tapped the side of his head in the spot where a human ear would be. "Footsteps," he said quietly, "Heavy ones. And there's only one other group still here that would move so conspicuously."

Rachael hissed a curse. "This alley is a one-way deal, only one exit besides going back through the school and out the front door."

"So we'll have to fight our way out."

"You make it sound so easy," Rachael remarked sarcastically, "So, can you use your advanced alien thingamabobs to see how many of these guys we're going to have to deal with?"

That was a good question. Lent brought up his Omni-Tool, and with it his radar, but the display flashed red and the word 'jammed' appeared in print on the screen. "That would be a no, Miss Aureus."

"Ah. Lovely."

"Indeed."

The rest of the Turians joined the two them. "Anyone have any ideas on how to get out of this?" Chora asked.

"We need reconnaissance," Spade supplied in his usual manner, "I volunteer."

Surprisingly, Rachael stepped forward. "I don't think so mister," she said combatively, "Since you guys are the ones who brought this on us, you obviously have no sense of subtlety. If anyone here is going to do 'reconnaissance', it's going to be me."

"Listen here, human-" Spade began angrily, before Vahrg cut him off with a dismissive shake of his head.

"Are you sure you want to do this Miss Aureus?" the captain asked, "There is no need for you to prove yourself by putting yourself in danger."

"I'm sure. Despite what I said earlier, I don't really like sticking my neck out. But I'm used to this kind of stealthy stuff, while you guys are more head on combatants. Let me do it, you know I'm right." Rachael's face was set in a determined mask. Lent could see the fear in her eyes, but there was confidence there as well. Perhaps she really could pull this off.

Vahrg gave in with a sigh. None of the Turians were stealth personnel, and aside from her little breakdown about it, Rachael _had_ killed the Batarian without alerting his fellows. "Very well then, Miss Aureus. However," the captain's voice grew stern, "If you are going to work as a member of my team, you will follow my orders without question. Is that understood?"

"Loud and clear Captain," Rachael replied with a wide grin, obviously pleased that she'd gotten her way. Lent shook his head in amusement. Why this human wanted to put herself in danger like this was completely beyond him.

"Good," Vahrg said, "Then listen to me carefully, Miss Aureus. I need you look for the exact number of hostiles. Be _thorough_, we don't need any surprise reinforcements. You also need to look for places with the most available cover, alternate escape routes, and I want you to find out what kind weaponry they have on them."

Rachael gave an affirmative nod. "Yes sir," she responded seriously.

"Prepare yourself then, Miss Aureus. You leave in five minutes. You have ten minutes to gather all the information you can, so good luck."

The human gave another nod, and then turned herself and Holly towards Lent. "Lieutenant," Rachael said, "Can you please watch my daughter while I'm gone?"

She made it sound like a request, but Lent knew he had little choice but to accept. The biotic nodded, and Rachael actually looked relieved, like she hadn't expected him to be so willing. "Thank you," she said gratefully before instructing her smaller counterpart to stay close to him.

Lent gave a glance to the little girl. She seemed reluctant to leave her mother's side, but Holly obediently followed the older human's orders and stood beside the biotic. The distrust and fear in Holly's icy blue eyes was almost palpable, but at least she had done as she was told.

"I'm trusting you with this, Lieutenant Tovess. I know you guys won't be in any real danger while I'm gone, but if something happens…" Rachael trailed off, probably not wanting to voice her fears.

The biotic gave her a reassuring look, hoping that she would interpret it as such. "Don't worry, she'll be fine."

The human gave a sad smile. "Thanks," she repeated, her tone filled with worry, but acceptance of his words. Then Rachael moved away to prepare herself by checking on her weapons.

Immediately after the colonist left, Lent could tell that Rachael knew what she was doing. As soon as she crossed the meager threshold between the alleyway and the main road, she disappeared out of sight. He didn't spot her _once_ from their limited viewpoint after that, and more importantly, he didn't _hear_ her. The moments that followed were full of almost agonizing wait and worry, as well as the constant paranoia that they would suddenly start hearing gunfire.

Spade looked decidedly unhappy about the captain's decision to allow the human to gather information. His mandibles were held close to his face in obvious irritation, and Eirika, who was standing near the corporal, seemed more afraid of her comrade than the Batarians that more than likely lurked just outside their pathetic safe haven.

Vahrg was looking pensive, as if he regretted the decision to allow Rachael her chance. Chora was watching Spade with pure amusement on her face, obviously carefree. The field medic's no worries attitude had always confused Lent. How anyone could be so unaffectedly cheerful in these kinds of circumstances was beyond his understanding.

Holly was as stoically quiet as ever, but that didn't surprise Lent at all. The girl was probably in shock, and if she wasn't going to open up to her mother, she certainly wasn't going to start chattering to him.

The biotic snorted to himself. If he kept up these observatory tendencies, he might have good chance of applying as the resident psychiatric on the next ship he was assigned to. Assuming he lived that long, of course.

Soon enough, the human's ten minutes were up and Rachael silently crept back into the alley. Lent was quite sure that if he hadn't been looking for her, he wouldn't have seen the colonist before it was too late. The biotic idly wondered how Rachael had acquired such skills.

Vahrg walked up to her. "Report," he ordered.

Rachael delivered her findings in a serious tone. Obviously, whatever she had seen had made her all business for the moment. "There are fifteen hostiles, all carrying assault rifles like the one the Lieutenant has. A couple of them were also equipped with something that seemed like a shotgun. There are a few spots of cover that we could make it to if we sprinted hard. There's also some kind of metal contraption that might be a uh… turret. Most of the hostiles are positioned around the front of the contraption, but three of them are positioned to the sides and behind it, not including the gunman. I also saw a couple of the Batarians duck into a side alley. Anyway, I observed them for a few minutes and they don't seem to be making any moves. They're probably just waiting for us to emerge, and then they'll gun us down."

Vahrg loosed a vehement curse under his breath. "We can't fight a mounted gun on foot, not even with plentiful cover. We'll be slaughtered!" The captain paced back and forth slightly, then his eyes brightened, as if he'd just had an idea. "You said there was a side alley," the Turian said, addressing Rachael once more, "Is there an entrance to it near here, and could it possibly lead around the turret?"

Rachael furrowed her brow in an expression that Lent guessed meant she was racking her brain for an answer. "Maybe…" she muttered. Then she nodded. "Yeah, there's an entrance down the road a ways, and those two Batarians were behind the turret before leaving. It's possible it could lead around, although we'd still have to fight; not to mention walking into an alley like that is like signing your own death sentence."

"Could we get to it undetected?" Vahrg pressed.

Rachael shook her head. "Impossible. There's not enough cover for the seven of us to make it there without them noticing. I mean, maybe _I_ could do it if I was careful, but even if I did make it, I'd still have to cause a ruckus to save myself from the two guys they've got in there already."

Lent clicked his mandibles in thought before speaking. "What if we caused a diversion? Then we could send somebody around through the alley to take out the turret from behind. Then they could take control of the turret, and finish off the rest of the Batarians."

The rest of the group turned their attention to him. Vahrg seemed to consider the biotic's statement before nodding. "That just might work, Lieutenant. We could send Miss Aureus and someone else to do that, while the rest of us keep hold of their attention. If we're precise and smart about this, we may have a chance."

"Whoa, wait a minute here," Rachael protested with a soft, but strongly disbelieving tone, "Recon? I can do that. But you're asking me to take care of a _heavy machine gun_? Sorry buddy, no can do, I like my internal organs where they are, thanks."

"Rache, you're the only person with the skills to do that, and besides, we're not sending you alone," Chora placated. Lent had a sneaking suspicion that he was going to be that extra person. The biotic had finally reached the conclusion that the spirits hated him.

"Oh, so now I only have a _50%_ chance of being shot full of holes? Yeah, those odds _definitely _sound promising." Rachael was definitely not pleased with this little turn of events. Lent could say the same, but he had suggested it in the first place. No use complaining when you've dug your own grave.

"Miss Aureus," Vahrg interjected in his calm, yet stern manner, "You have no choice in this matter. This is the only feasible way that my team, _and_ your daughter, are getting out of here alive."

Rachael stopped her protests at the mention of her charge. The human threw a glare at Vahrg for a moment before giving in. "…Fine. I'll do it. But you better keep up your end of the bargain, and keep Holly safe."

"Don't worry Rache, she'll be fine," Chora put in once more, clapping the colonist on the shoulder. Rachael nodded at the field medic in response, her reassurance convincing the human, at least for now.

"So who's coming with me?" the human asked throwing her arms wide, gesturing to the rest of the Turians.

"The Lieutenant will accompany you. All you have to worry about is getting the both of you to the turret unseen," Vahrg replied with a questioning glance to the biotic. Lent nodded his assent and the captain continued. "But before that, I'm going to need to know where to hole up to give you your diversion"

Rachael put a hand over her face with a sigh of resignation. "There's a garden in front of a house right across the street that could accommodate all of you. The lady who lived there put up a short wall around it because the plot jutted slightly into the main road and she didn't want anyone to walk over her plants. What she doesn't know won't hurt her, so by all means use it to get us the hell out of here. Just walk out of the alley, and it should be across the street to your right. There's no cover on the way, so you'll have to sprint to make it without getting shot."

"Alright then, we'll use that."

"Who's going to stay behind to take care of Holly?" It was a loaded question. Vahrg's answer was probably less than satisfactory to their human 'friend'.

"Engineer Inice will remain here to watch over her." It was a good decision, from Lent's perspective. Eirika was the least useful Turian in combat, and this way the distraction team wouldn't have to sacrifice a lot of firepower to secure their alliance with the human.

Unfortunately, the colonist didn't look at it from Lent's perspective. "Right… and you expect her to protect my daughter with that nonexistent gun of hers?" Rachael asked sarcastically. Of course, her concerns were well founded, but the human wasn't really voicing them in the most tactful way. That kind of disrespect for authority would have gotten any _Turian_ a sharp reprimand and latrine duty.

In reply, Vahrg pulled the assault rifle off of his back and stepped toward the engineer. The captain handed the weapon to her with a murmur that, while inciting a small amount of fear in the female Turian's eyes, also ignited an uncommon sense of determination that soon radiated from her form. The engineer nodded and snapped off a quick salute. Lent just hoped that Eirika didn't crack when it counted most.

"Satisfied?" Vahrg questioned brusquely, shifting his attention to the human woman.

Rachael's face gained a regretful look, and she indulged herself in some hair twirling. "…Yeah. Sorry, I…"

"It's alright, Miss Aureus," Eirika reassured with a sad, apologetic expression pressed onto her features, as if she were remorseful of her own weakness, "I understand."

The human shook her head. "No, it isn't. I'm sorry. I should just be thanking you for protecting her in the first place. Please, keep her safe." Rachael said with a pointed gaze at her daughter.

Eirika nodded again. "I will," she replied with the barest waver in her voice, signifying her attempt to push down her own fearful emotions, "I promise."

…

After her protests and outbursts had finally been dealt with, Rachael moved away from the rest of the congregation to the back of the alley, sitting against the wall. She was by herself, having instructed her little shadow to stay with Eirika, perhaps as a show of trust, perhaps because she just wanted to be alone.

Lent and the other Turians hashed out the remaining details of the operation. When they finished, Vahrg instructed the lieutenant that he was to inform their human ally that they would commence in fifteen minutes. Lent, being the obedient Turian he was, obliged almost immediately.

Rachael was hunched over gazing at the Judgment pistol in her hands, a far-off look in her violet-amber stare, when the lieutenant made his way over to her. The human had removed the beige pack that had been slung over her shoulders, and had rested it beside herself. Noticing him, the colonist looked up from the gun. She seemed almost tired for a moment before she resumed the personality that Lent recognized.

Rachael waved the gun at him. "So Lieutenant," she began conversationally, and probably deliberately avoiding the topic of her recent confrontational conversation with the Turians, "Could you tell me how to use this thing?"

"You don't know how to use a gun?" the biotic teased with a slight, mock-incredulous laugh in his tone, playing along. Although, if she was being serious, talk about a major oversight. The biotic was at least grateful that she'd asked if she was having any doubts about her ability. He didn't fancy facing down a couple Batarians in a killzone like a narrow alleyway without any sort of backup. Well, without any sort of backup that didn't have a chance of shooting him the back, anyway.

The human scoffed, and Lent was pretty sure the noise's meaning was universal. "Don't be ridiculous. Just show me where the safety is."

Rachael handed the gun to him and Lent flipped it over, pushing the weapon in front of her face and placing his taloned finger over a small catch that would prevent the Judgment from firing. After he gave the Batarian pistol back to her, she inspected it one more time to memorize the mechanism's location before murmuring, "Thanks," and setting it down beside her.

That was when the human began acting peculiarly. She rummaged through the pockets of her leggings and pulled out a small, flat device that had some sort of wire wrapped around it. The human woman then removed a small black object form her ear that Lent hadn't noticed before – as he hadn't really been paying attention the human's _ears_ of all things – and shoved that back into her pouch. Then she unraveled the wire, placed its two ends in her ears, and closed her eyes.

Lent was about to ask what in spirits' name she was doing when he caught the sound of music coming from her. At least, that was what he assumed the screeching, twanging sound was. The song was short lived, and not a minute and a half after utilizing them, Rachael pulled the white buds out of her auricles and returned the device to her pocket. It took her a moment to realize that Lent was still staring at her.

"What, can't a girl listen to her tunes one last time before she's shredded to bits by high caliber bullets?" the human questioned sarcastically, raising one of those lines of hair that adorned her brow.

"Tunes?" was his inquisitive reply.

"Yeah, tunes. Songs. Music. Melodic arrangements of sound. Don't tell me that Turians don't have those concepts," Rachael returned skeptically.

"We do," the biotic supplied needlessly, "I just didn't think that you would be one to listen to it much. Your personality doesn't exactly scream a love for the arts, you know."

The colonist snorted. "I suppose that's true. Well, throw your silly assumptions to the side, Lieutenant, this girl used to spend half of her waking hours, and some of her sleeping ones, with her earphones in, blasting one piece of music or another."

Lent let go of a small chuckle, and Rachael gave him an odd look. "You sound so proud."

"What can I say; I'm a junkie for a good soundtrack," she replied, "Anyway, it's not really important right now. Any tips on how to not die in the next ten minutes?"

Lent shifted his weight as he thought for a moment, crossing his arms as he did so. "My best advice would be to not get impulsive, to find the best cover available when we engage the enemy, and try to keep the friendly fire to a minimum."

His last remark elicited a short, quiet bark of laughter from Rachael. "Will do, LT," she answered with a smirk, and what he assumed was a mock version of a human salute.

Lent's OmniTool suddenly glowed, signaling to him that time was almost up, which he belatedly told the colonist. The biotic proffered his hand to the human, and she took it, using his weight to haul herself up. Rachael walked forward a little and stretched, posing her arms in the air for a moment before turning her head to him with a sarcastic smirk still pasted on her face.

"Come on, Mr. Alien," she remarked quietly, "Time to get shot."

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**AN: Alright, time for that status update. I regret to inform you all that I will be going back to school in a couple days, and this may affect the time it takes for me to pump out these chapters for you guys/gals. Sorry about that.**

**In other news, the action part will _definitely_ be next chapter and I'll try to get it out as soon as my new schedule allows. It might be a little difficult to write, as it will be from Rachael's perspective, but hopefully I'll be able to get the point across without too much snarky commentary. Until then, thanks for reading!**


	6. Day 0: Confrontation

**AN: Hello there! It's been like two months, so how about I give you all my _deepest _apologies? I am truly sorry, because I was just being lazy. But, let's put that behind us. I'll just let you guys/gals get to readin'.  
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**I want to thank you guys for all the new reviews, alerts and faves, they really are encouraging! I also want to thank my beta R3aper for editing this big boy. Finally, all of my crazy author's note stuff will be at the bottom, for those of you who give a crap about what I have to say!  
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**Enjoy!  
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Tezuno, Alleyway

June 10, 2157

5:00 P.M.

On the outside, Rachael was calm, and composed; the picture of prepared for her coming ordeal. On the inside, the colonist's thoughts were a nervous shit-storm. Aside from the obvious fact that she'd soon be pitted against a freaking _turret_ – a freaking _alien_ turret, she might add – there were also a couple of other problems that had her express attention. The first, and most prominent, of these little grievances was her _way_ less than sparkling mental condition.

Rachael wasn't stupid. If you suddenly wake up with blood on your hands and holes in your memory, you're in trouble. If you have headaches from thinking about seemingly benign subjects, like this morning, you're in trouble. If you start having a mini, mind searing freak-out after finding the body of someone you _forgot_ you killed, you're in trouble.

Speaking of which, Rachael threw a quick glance to the cadaver she'd created, a memory flashing behind her eyes. The colonist shivered and looked away. The remembrance of the act didn't seem real, like she was watching a TV show with bad reception that had been beamed directly into her brain. The fact that 'she' had used a knife made it all the worse. The former bartender knew how to fight with one, but it was tool she loathed. You needed to be close to a person to utilize the weapon, and you got a front row seat for all of the gore you created. All in all, the memory would definitely be composing quite a few nightmares for years to come.

The second and, by far, more selfish problem? The fact that her daughter was going to be guarded by a goddamn milquetoast, weak-willed, untrustworthy alien, that could barely eke out a few sentences before stumbling into a stutter. Rachael knew she was being unfair to Eirika, but her over-protective instincts were kicking into high gear. She only played nice at the end because one timid guard was better than no guard, and the colonist didn't want to leave her charge alone in the familiar alley with only a cold corpse for company.

Rachael kicked herself inwardly. Dwelling on this crap was _not _going to help her get out of here alive. In fact, it might just end up killing her. The human woman very much wished she could pop in her headphones and just lose herself in the music for a while. She had done so for a very fleeting moment earlier, and perhaps that would just have to hold her over until this was done with. The former bartender gave herself a deep breath to try and empty her head.

Lent came up beside her, looking at Rachael out of the corners of his ocean-blue eyes. They stood nearer to the entrance/exit than Rachael normally would have liked, but this was due to her trying not to degenerate into a panicked, nonsensical mess when she finally had to leave this enclosed sanctuary; by forcing herself to look outside of it.

"You okay?" the Turian lieutenant inquired, following up from their recent, far more pleasant, conversation before he had had to explain their little operation to her. Rachael briefly considered a sarcastic response of, _yeah, just peachy_, before remembering that he probably wouldn't get it.

Instead, she settled for the honest truth. "No."

"An understandable reaction," Lent returned, shifting his position so that his front faced her. "I'm not particularly going to enjoy this either, but there's nothing either of us can do about it. That in mind… care to tell this Turian how you'll be moving us from here to the other side of the road without them seeing us?"

Rachael sighed. She hated having to explain her methods to other people. The fact that the lieutenant wasn't even human further solidified that fact. "Just try your damnedest to stay light on your feet, close to me, and in the shadows. You won't be able to do any more than that in that clunky suit of armor, Lieutenant."

Lent nodded. At least he was humble enough to know when she was right. "Fair enough, Miss Aureus."

"Don't call me that," Rachael uttered suddenly.

Lent gave her a blank, questioning look. "What?"

"'Miss Aureus'. I don't think the enemy is going to wait for you to finish your pleasantries before pulling the trigger, and I don't really care for formalities. Rachael is fine." The human also neglected to mention that she didn't think she deserved the respect, no matter how fleeting, that was intended by the title. Like being called a 'mom' earlier, it kind of weirded her out.

"Alright then…" he paused for a moment, as if trying to get used to the familiarity she suggested, "…Rachael. Got your gun?"

"Yup," she said, patting her lower back where the weapon jabbed into her torso, "Right here. I'm basically as ready as I'll ever be, so how about we hurry this up?"

He smiled at her, baring those scary sharp teeth again. "In a rush?"

"I just want this to be over. If I die, at least I don't have to worry about my figure anymore." Humor is a lovely thing, especially when you can use it to cover your fear.

"Your figure?"

Except when the other person is an alien, and doesn't get the joke. Rachael sighed. "Never mind, not important. Can we do this?"

Lent checked his Omni-Tool, then gave a glance to Vahrg. The older Turian nodded at the two of them, and Lent nodded in turn. "Let's go," he said, all hints of playfulness banished in favor of a very businesslike seriousness.

Of course, since Rachael was the stealthy one of the two of them, she led the way with the lieutenant sticking close behind, although not before throwing one last glance back to Holly, with whom she'd left her pack. The human plunged boldly out of the alley… or at least she would have if she hadn't smacked herself against its wall at the last second before sidling around the corner. Lent did basically the same thing, although he was smart enough to not actually touch the wall, lest his armor scrape it and give them away from the get-go.

It was slow progress from then on, taking small steps to the left while making paranoid glances to their surroundings, and of course, their enemies. There were fifteen in total (or at least that was how many Rachael had seen on her short run around), two in the alley that she and Lent were heading to, four behind the turret, one of which being the gunman, and nine that stood idly in front of the machine gun with thirty-six watchful eyes trained on the road ahead of them. It was an unnerving view to say the least, and every time the human thought even _one_ of those eyes drifted over her, her heart raced double-time.

Thankfully, they were not noticed, at least not on this part of the trek. The average Batarian's eyesight was not as advanced as a Turian's, from what Lent told her, and it might even be less so than a human's as an offset to having two extra views, but perhaps that was just wishful thinking on Rachael's part. All of this in mind, the human and her Turian comrade were also at least a hundred feet down the road, in a slight shadow very close to the proximity of the wall, and as such were not very visible targets.

Still, the danger was enough to get Rachael onto a _very_ extreme adrenaline rush. She felt her senses going into overdrive, as if her range of sight was suddenly extended, and her hearing more acute. Her breaths came faster, and her heart pounded so hard in her chest that she could swear Lent could hear it (assuming he couldn't normally.) In this energetic and liberating state, it was… _difficult…_ to say the least, to stay focused and move at such an infinitesimal pace as the one she currently required.

Due to her somewhat heightened senses, Rachael could also hear _every _mistake Lent made. He wasn't _that _bad for sure, but he really needed improvement. His steps were too heavy, and his armor was exactly good for loose, silent movements. Physical factors that he couldn't control also hampered the Turian's stealth ability. He was a tall, imposing figure, and despite how slender the Turian waist seemed to be, he was a large, bulky person. And large, bulky people are usually the ones who get seen.

Even with these problems, the two of them managed to get to the area across from the entrance to the alley with little to no trouble. No Batarian suddenly loosed a shot at them, and neither Rachael, nor Lent, fell stone cold dead out of nowhere. Of course, this was the easy part. Now, for the hard one.

Roads in Tezuno were rather wide. This was probably due to humanity's incessant lust for grandeur, and to build big things with lots of room to breathe. The current one, a _residential _road that almost no one actually _drove _on, was nearly thirty-five feet wide. It might as well have been a thirty-five foot wide chasm, as crossing it in this broad daylight would cause anyone to die a very bullet-filled death. Fortunately, Rachael was good at this whole sneaking thing.

The colonist halted, and Lent halted as well. She leaned to his 'ear' (because he didn't really visibly _have _one) and whispered, "Stay here. I'm going to cross, then you give the Captain the signal. Wait for them to start shooting, then imitate the way I do it and make your way to me."

Lent looked at her with surprise when she finished. He mirrored her earlier movement and spoke into the human's ear in reply. "What are you taking about?" he asked lowly, "I'm crossing with you."

The human rolled her eyes. "Like no one's going to notice the big Turian in shiny blue armor crawling across the street?"

"Did you just say crawl?"

"Yes. I just said crawl. Now, shut up Lieutenant, and let me do what I do best."

Waiting for no further argument, Rachael slowly dropped herself onto her stomach, and began to drag herself along the rough pavement. The movement was, again, slow, just as before. Quicker movements alerted and drew the eye much more than the sluggish ones that the former bartender currently utilized.

To say that the colonist despised this type of traversal was an understatement. First was the fact that her elbows would be skinned to hell after this, as she was stupid enough not to bring a long sleeved shirt with her when she left the house. Damn Terra Zenith and its beautiful weather! Second, her knees would be receiving the same treatment, albeit less so with her jeans for padding. Finally, and third, Rachael's jeans _and _her shirt were going to be _ruined_ after this. The tank-top was one of her favorites, the jeans were really nice too, and both were expensive. Rachael was not a girly girl by a long-shot, but goddammit, she liked this outfit!

Circumstantially, this was nerve-racking. Before, yeah, she'd been scared. But at least she could _see_ the Batarians, see that they hadn't seen her. With this, the colonist was blind. The only indication of aggression she would get was sound, which would be woefully inadequate, and likely too late to do her any good. Any tiny noise sent the bass thrum of Rachael's heart into an even higher tempo.

And thus, the former bartender crawled. How many minutes had sloughed by? Could the amount of time she'd been doing this even be measured in minutes? It was only thirty-five feet. That's not that far. Her mind was probably over exaggerating. Hopefully.

Thankfully, Rachael eventually made it within the close walls of the alleyway, the worry over the damage to her clothing forgotten and thrown into the part of her brain that stored insignificant little nuances such as that. The passage was narrow, and opened onto another path that moved parallel to the road. The alley was just leftover space between houses, it wasn't really manufactured for any sort of use, but there were many entrances and exits, and many hiding places. The colonist and the Turian would have to be careful about this when it came time to traverse it.

Rachael stood and turned around to face the considerably large road that she'd just shuffled across. Her gaze went to Lent immediately, and she cursed. Even with the distraction of three (hopefully) highly trained Turians pouring bullets at them, the sheer non-existence of the camouflage factor in regards to the lieutenant's armor would be detrimental. Not getting spotted would be a matter of luck.

Lent locked eyes with the former bartender. Then, after noting that she'd made it across safely, he did something with his Omni-Tool, which apparently had a stealth mode that made it so it didn't glow like a beacon, which signaled the sound of heavy metal boots pounding on pavement, and the rattle of automatic gunfire. Rachael had forgotten how very loud that sound was.

The lieutenant did as she told him to, and crawled across the street, his armor scraping the pavement with every movement. If the gunfire hadn't been covering him, he would have been discovered immediately with the racket he would have made. Rachael flinched every time she saw a stray bullet (as apparently alien bullets are extremely visible, even more so than plain bullet tracers) fly over his head, or even once, when one slammed into his side. Lent didn't even recoil, probably due to those science fiction worthy kinetic barriers the Turians had.

Soon the Turian reached her. He stood up and dusted himself off, looking fairly nonchalant, as if he'd just walked through a park rather than crawled through a battlefield. He drew his rifle and nodded at Rachael to do the same. The colonist pulled the Judgment (that was what Lent had called it, and it did seem a fitting name in her hands) from the back of her pants, remarking in a light mutter about the bruise it no doubt created by being stored there. Rachael quickly remembered to adjust the safety, and pointed her weapon at the threshold to the perpendicular pathway.

Lent walked past her and peered into the adjacent corridor. He gestured for the former bartender to come up next to him. "This is my specialty Mi… Rachael," he corrected in a whisper, still somehow managing to sound dead serious despite his little mistake, "So follow what I tell you and you'll be fine. Let's keep the friendly fire to a minimum, yes?"

Rachael nodded. That was really all she could do. The human was too tense for sarcasm at this point.

"You take left, I take right. If you don't see anything, turn around and help me, got it?"

The colonist repeated her nod. Lent gave her a sideways glance before saying, "Let's go."

They advanced slowly. Rachael cast long, thorough glances to her left and right before following Lent's instructions and heading to the left. The alley was close, claustrophobic even, and barely able to contain two people who stood abreast, not to mention two Turians, with their wide and mildly rotund torsos. It was less well lit than the main road, a shadowed valley made by the cold steel walls of colony residences.

Rachael's section was empty, as far as she could tell. She certainly saw no one, and wasn't shot in the face despite how easily she could have been spotted. Her nerves were not quieted by this however. She kept a sharp eye out for any suspicious movement, and listened with great care to the minutest sounds she could hear through the muffled discharges of active weapons.

The colonist was about to check one of numerous exits of this enclosed corridor, before she heard the noise of footsteps behind her, a different set from Lent's, who had been similarly inspecting his side of the alley. Rachael whirled, gun raised, and hurried to the lieutenant's side as quietly as possible, which was very easy, due to the unconscious use of her particular skill set.

A Batarian walked out of another alleyway entrance/exit not a mere fifty feet ahead of them. He obviously wasn't expecting to see anyone, as he carried his weapon, what looked to be a shotgun, casually in his arms rather than in a ready position. His quadruple gaze slid to the alley's two other occupants lazily, before the alien realized what he was looking at.

The enemy might have been able to retaliate if he had noticed his danger a few moments earlier, but as it was, by the time the Batarian's eyes had widened in surprise, Lent had opened fire, his new assault rifle rattling happily. After a moment's hesitation, Rachael aimed and pulled her trigger as well.

The pistol was much heavier than the lighter firearms she was used to. The first few shots were wide and hit only steel walls, but she did score a few hits before the alien's shields had been drained and he succumbed to the relentless hail of bullets from the lieutenant. The Batarian fell with little pomp or circumstance, and crumpled to the floor with bullet holes riddling his recently deceased form.

Whenever she pulled a trigger, no matter how many times she'd done it, the human always felt more than just a little recoil. Bile rose in her throat at the disgusting state this once living creature, no matter how hostile or alien, had been reduced to. The tiniest notion of guilt reared itself in her mind before it could be squelched, but Rachael was quickly able to kill those feelings with rationalization. The Batarian was slaver scum, and wouldn't have thought twice about killing her given the chance.

Least fleeting of these reactions, however, was something completely different. The sweet, almost delectable taste of _revenge_. It surprised the small, rational part of Rachael's mind with its intensity, with how very personal this vengeance seemed. Of course it was a natural reaction, the Batarians _had_ abducted her friends to throw them into slavery, as well as doing _something_ to turn her daughter mute… but there was more to it than that. It was as if the colonist was repaying rancor for someone in particular; but who? Holly? Bob? Mari?

Rachael couldn't tell. Her headache had come back, discouraging further thoughts. This wasn't the time for this anyway. Although Rachael wasn't as familiar with firefights as she used to be, the human was quite sure getting distracted by personal musings was one of many things that could get you killed.

While the colonist had been tarrying to organize her thoughts, Lent had moved ahead of her. The lieutenant turned around to most likely tell Rachael to hurry the hell up, but instead his eyes widened fractionally and he raised his rifle.

Rachael was going to yell at him to stop acting like an idiot before she noticed that the gun was aimed not _at_ her, but _behind _her. The human spun around as quickly as she could, sloppily aiming her gun and squeezing the trigger. The shot was ineffectual and far too late anyway.

A Batarian stood only a few yards away behind her, the muzzle of his pistol flashing greedily, firing a bullet that would no doubt tear through the human's soft, unprotected flesh without discrimination. Had she had the time, Rachael would have had a hollow laugh to give at the surprisingly ironic circumstances of her death. As it were, though she knew her fate, all the colonist could do was wait for oblivion, with too little time for fear to blossom in her gut.

It took her a second to realize she was still standing. Another to realize she was glowing blue. And a third to realize that her assailant also glowed, but was standing very still, almost stalwart in his (at least she _presumed_ it was a he) rigidity.

"W-what the hell?" Rachael stammered, lifting her arms so she could get a better look at them. It looked like she was encased in some kind of blue energy, and while seeming benign (considering the fact that she wasn't _dead_), it scared her. A lot.

Lent ran forward and to the side of the Batarian, effectively ignoring the now thoroughly confused human, and placed his rifle at the side of the alien's skull. The enemy's apparent suspended animation soon ended, and before he could even react to the sudden touch of a gun to his cranium, the Turian pulled the trigger and ended the Batarian with a muffled bang.

Thankfully, the head hadn't exploded into a million gory pieces. Rachael already had enough nightmare fuel to last her a lifetime, especially with this light show crap. What the hell was going on anyway?

The body slumped to the ground with a thud. Simultaneously, Lent began to walk over to the _very _baffled colonist, just as the glow faded from her body. He gave her a stern look, like a scolding tutor. "You should be more careful. I don't like using my biotics if I don't have to, especially in these kinds of circumstances."

The human blinked at the Turian. "Wait a minute, Biotics? You mean _you _were the one who did that?" Natural Armor, natural weaponry, and now fucking _magic powers_?

"Yeah. Did I forget to mention that?"

"Yes. Yes you did."

Lent gave a dismissive gesture. "Sorry about that then. Anyway, we really need to move on. Let's go." The Turian walked past her in the direction they were originally heading, but then stopped a few feet ahead of the former bartender and turned his head to her. "And this time, check behind you before turning your back."

Rachael was too preoccupied to sputter a snide response. In all honesty, the woman _really_ didn't want to keep going, she wanted an explanation first. But there would be no point staying here and discussing this newest revelation if everyone else died. She would have to save her questions for later, no matter how much her curiosity was urging her to take a time out.

Begrudgingly, the colonist followed the lieutenant, though not without a few dissatisfied grumbles. Despite her ire however, she _did _glance over her shoulder every now and then, although this was more paranoia than necessity. After all, both Batarians she had known were in the passage were accounted for. And dead.

As the two moved onward toward their exit, the sounds of gunfire boomed even louder, but Rachael was growing more used to it now. Even after seven years of calm, she still had retained _some _of her nerve.

Speaking of coping with stress, the human suddenly realized she was taking this very well. Aliens, her friends getting abducted, even _scarier _aliens that were somewhat friendly, turrets, magic powers (biotics, whatever), this was all a lot to take in, and yet the colonist accepted it with little more than a few confused outbursts, a couple blinks, and a psychotic freak out or two. Either something was seriously wrong with her (likely), her past experiences had hardened her more than she had thought (even more likely), or she was too overloaded by something else to give more than a few shits (least likely). For some reason, Rachael suspected the latter the most, despite the second being the most probable.

The time for introspective thinking had run out, however, before the former bartender could think of a reason why. Just ahead, light penetrated the shadow of the enclosed space, signifying another break by which they could leave. Rachael moved a tad quicker to catch up with Lent before tapping him on the shoulder.

"Wait here, I'm going to have a look first," she told the Turian in a whisper. Rachael didn't wait for his assenting nod before she left, but she was able to catch it out of the corner of her eye.

Rachael stayed within the confines of the shadows, but poked her head around the corner to get a good view of the street. The cacophony of battle was deafening from this position, but somehow she was still able to keep a clear mind and get a decent idea of what was going on.

Somewhere in the back of her brain the former bartender realized this was her first real close-up look at the Batarians (who looked… interesting, and Rachael wasn't saying anything more than that), if you didn't count her little 'episode'. Oh, the recent confrontations of minutes gone by had provided her with a view of them, but she was too busy either shooting at them or in paralyzing fear of death to pay much attention. Even earlier, during her scouting, she had only counted bodies and looked at weapons, so she wasn't analyzing their features much. It was a silly and irrelevant thought though, and was quickly discarded.

Rachael was only slightly surprised that most of the gunfire seemed to come from the turret. The Turians were holed up in the garden as planned, and it seemed to be providing adequate cover for now, but the small half-walls were not designed with the purpose of absorbing bullets in mind, and as such they were slowly chipping away in the onslaught. The garden was holding up well, considering the circumstances, but Lent and Rachael would have to act fast, lest the cover crumble and crush their chances.

Six of the Batarians stood off to the side, allowing the turret a clear line of fire. They seemed to be mulling and socializing in an arrogant manner, most likely confident the Turians didn't have a chance. They didn't appear too keen on approaching the garden, however, despite the heavy machine gun's very effective suppressing fire. The corpse that lay in a heap on the ground between the Batarians and the Turians was evidence that the latter were still able to protect themselves to some degree.

To Rachael's immediate right, near the wall, two of the Batarians that were most likely behind the turret before the attack, huddled behind a stairwell. They were also rather casual, however, seeing as they sat on the ground, conversing with each other and not helping with the battle at all, content to wait for the turret to break through the garden and mow down the enemy. Another Batarian, nearly fifteen feet behind the former two, seemed to glance over his shoulder every few seconds, and was probably meant to be a lookout for enemies coming from behind. He didn't put much effort into it though; his glances were at regular and easily predictable intervals.

Two final aliens stood near the turret, one being the gun's operator, the other seeming to watch out for anyone planning to storm the gun and kill the gunner. The four-eyed alien's stance dictated to Rachael that he was bored, and that he thought he was unlikely to join in on the 'action'.

Only one Batarian was unaccounted for, but that didn't worry Rachael. He was probably just dead somewhere, out of sight.

All in all, Rachael's party was still horribly outnumbered and out-gunned, but the enemy was arrogant and lazy. If she and Lent played their cards right, they might really have a chance at turning the tables. The colonist retreated back to the lieutenant, right where she left him in the alleyway. The former bartender then relayed to him all of her observations in the very businesslike manner that usually overtook her in these kinds of situations.

Lent crossed his arms and shifted his weight, gaining a thoughtful look. Eventually, he addressed Rachael saying, "I've got an idea," before laying out his plan for her.

It was well thought out, but because it involved relying on the lieutenant's particular 'abilities', it left the human a little skeptical.

"Why do I get the feeling that this isn't going to work?" Rachael asked, checking over her gun, still amazed by the virtually infinite ammo in those things.

"Pessimism," Lent replied simply. He gave her what she interpreted as a reassuring look and a smile. "Relax Rachael, we'll get through this."

The colonist sighed. It was an insubstantial placation, but Rachael guessed it was all she had to hold onto for the moment, so she might as well make do. "If you say so…"

"I do. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

Lent stood beside the former bartender near the exit, but did not lead the way. Still, he gave her the signal to start. "Let's do this then… try not to die."

The colonist rolled her eyes in response, something that visibly amused the lieutenant for some reason, and quipped, "I'll do my best," in the most sarcastic tone she could muster before leaving the passage.

Of course, she didn't go in (or out, she supposed) guns blazing, that would have been silly, as well as completely not in compliance with her skills. Once again, Rachael quietly sidled along the wall immediately to her right, hopefully to eliminate the lookout quietly so she and Lent would have the chance to move in on the gunner and his spotter while they were still confidant and sloppy.

The colonist stopped to maneuver her gun into the back of her pants, already irritating the early bruise that had formed. Then she drew her blade, took a deep breath, and continued her slow advance.

Rachael had timed her exit with the pattern of the guard's looks. She had ten seconds to get to him and remove him from the equation, and if she didn't make it, her probability of death was high. The moments ticked by as she inched closer and closer.

The former bartender would have preferred the Judgment to the survival knife, vastly would have preferred it in fact. This weapon would take her close, something she loathed, and the sights and smells and sounds would be hers to experience in all of their macabre detail.

Rachael repressed a shiver, but did not slow or quicken her pace.

The seconds continued to slip away, one by one.

Soon she was upon him. The alien hadn't noticed her, had not even tilted his head in her direction before she struck.

The knife slid through his flesh easily. The human wanted to be sick, but she worked to keep her composure.

She had inserted the knife into a very small chink in the enemy's armor, one that reached directly inward to the Batarian's heart, or so Lent had informed her. He appeared to be right. Rachael helped the body to the ground as quietly as she could. There would be no time to hide it.

The former bartender then moved back along the wall, to get into a better position for the second phase of the plan. As she had no way of communicating with the lieutenant remotely, they had agreed to exactly fifty seconds after she had left the secluded pathway. Timing was everything, and if she got anything even a second too late, they were screwed; there was no alternative option at that point.

She had apparently arrived a few seconds early. Rachael sheathed her knife, pulled out the Judgment again, and waited, her heart hammering in her chest, in apprehension, and in controlled fear. Then, she heard Lent moving quickly, _loudly_, and that was the signal.

The lieutenant used his ability from earlier, the one that seemed to freeze his opponent in place (he had called the technique 'stasis', which seemed fitting). Blue light enveloped the turret operator and his spotter, and the heavy gun fell silent. At this point in the plan, they threw caution and stealth to the wind.

The colonist flew at the gunner, and Lent at the other Batarian, both placing their guns to the unmoving alien's heads. Lent had put away his assault rifle, and instead held a bright red pistol, a cheerful mockery of the color of blood. Then the glow faded, and both human and Turian pulled their respective triggers, downing the two enemies in one fell swoop.

Rachael pulled the now dead Batarian off of the gun, allowing Lent to use it. Now she was to operate as _his _spotter while he gave the other Turians some cover fire. But the beginning was the easier of the two halves of the lieutenant's plan. Once again, it was now time for the hard one.

The colonist's duty at this point was to stop the two stairwell Batarians from circling around the turret and blowing her comrade's brains out. Unfortunately, that was a lot more complex than it sounded. She would be facing two enemies with _one _pistol. Those were not good odds.

However, Rachael had always lived by the mantra '_the best defense is a good offense_' and it applied to this as well. The human rushed the two at the stairwell, haphazardly aiming and firing her pistol at them, and as she suspected they would, the dazed aliens quickly scrambled to avoid her inaccurate fire. She then stopped and aimed as carefully as she dared at one of them, and landed ten shots that tore through the Batarian's shields and armor before her gun grew too hot in her hand. She may not have killed him, but he was down for the count anyway.

That was when her luck ran out. There were _two _of them after all. The other had turned and fired at her, and a few of the bullets from his assault rifle grazed her before she started glowing again. She didn't dare throw a glance to Lent, but apparently he had been paying enough attention to know she was in a spot of trouble.

This was bad. Rachael no longer had the element of surprise, and as Lent told her earlier, his biotics (magic powers) were not unlimited. The barrier wouldn't last much longer. So the human decided to go for broke.

Instead of going to find cover, the colonist charged her quarry. He obviously wasn't expecting it, but the alien still loosed an accurate slew of bullets at her. She felt every single impact even though the attacks didn't pierce her, and noticed that her glow was fading.

But she was apparently quick enough. The human made it over to her enemy, and brutally smashed the hottest part of the overheated pistol into his face. His resulting scream was horrifying, but she blocked it out and continued hitting until he no longer moved or made any noise. She hadn't noticed her own animalistic screams until that moment. Rachael closed her mouth and the noise closed off with it.

The colonist did not analyze her own behavior; she had no need, nor the desire to.

Now, hopefully the rest would be smooth sailing. That had gone a lot better than she had thought it would. She threw a glance to what had once been the large congregation of six Batarians. There were now only two, caught between the mounted gun and the remaining Turians' fire with no option for escape. They would be finished soon, this horrible experience would be over, and the former bartender could take solace in the fact that she had done what she had had to, for Holly's sake. That was what she hoped, anyway.

Then the heavy machine gun fire stopped.

The two Batarians were still standing.

Rachael's eyes widened as her mind almost immediately figured out what had went wrong. The last one hadn't been dead after all, it seemed.

The human turned her alarmed gaze to Lent, and sure enough, he was wrestling the final Batarian, the one that _she _had overlooked, trying desperately to keep his enemy's gun aimed away from him. The colonist didn't think about what she did next. She just acted.

Pivoting on her heel, as quickly as she could, the former bartender again charged an enemy, her gun still too overheated to be much use to her, and with Lent in the way it wouldn't help anyway. Somehow her knife instinctively found its way into her hand, and she tackled the Batarian just as Lent gained some leeway, throwing the four-eyed alien to the ground. The turret fire resumed almost immediately, but Rachael barely noticed.

The human started on top, attempting to thrust her blade down into the enemy's face. The Batarian caught her hand before she could complete the mortal blow. They struggled against each other for a few moments and the alien growled something that she couldn't understand at her.

Then he flipped her.

Now Rachael was on the bottom, trying to keep a hold on her knife, but it was no use, she had no leverage and was not strong enough to turn the tide. The Batarian managed the grab her arm and twist it, making her drop her blade and cry out in pain.

The four-eyed alien's expression twisted into a close approximation of a sadistic sneer.

His hands found their way around the human's neck, and they squeezed, hard. Apparently, he desired her death more than his own life, as this could have been his chance to run. Instead, the pressure increased and his hold tightened. The colonist could barely breathe.

She tried to think her way out of this, but could not. The squeezing continued and Rachael's vision was soon occluded by the dark spots of suffocation, her lungs screaming frantically for air.

Rachael's thoughts soon no longer searched for a way out. She only thought of what a shitty way to die this would be, after surviving the rest of the battle. Talk about a let down.

Just as her consciousness fuzzed and started to fade, there was a loud crack, and a distinct relaxation in pressure. The human somehow found some last reserve of energy and pushed the Batarian off of her, gasping for air.

Once she had collected herself somewhat, she realized that her antagonizer was dead, and that Chora now stood above her with a smoking pistol and what looked most like a relieved grin on her face. "Thought you were out of the fight for a second there Rache," she remarked, holstering the weapon.

The human replied in gasping wheezes and coughs. Eventually, she regained her voice. "Almost," she said hoarsely, shaking her head as if to clear it. "Almost. Did we win?" Rachael wasn't sure if this was real or some elaborate trick of Hell. She certainly didn't _feel _very alive at the moment.

"Yeah. Yeah we won. The corporal took a bullet to the shoulder, be he'll be alright given enough time."

"Where…?" Rachael croaked, sitting up with the field medic's help. Chora seemed to get _her_ meaning. The Turian gently turned the human's head toward a dark indent on the other side of the street. Another alley. The colonist cursed her stupidity. Those alleys ran throughout the entire colony, but she had forgotten that 'little' entrance, and had suffered mortally because of it. Shame burned her, because she also wasn't the only one, which led to her next question.

"Is the lieutenant…?" the human choked out, trailing off and once again hoping that Chora would get her meaning. Thankfully, the alien woman did.

"Tovess's fine. His pride's a little bruised, but he'll be fine. I'm more worried about _you_. Can you walk?"

Rachael nodded, and with Chora's help, stood. Although she could probably walk on her own, the human didn't have the will to, so she leaned on the Turian for support, which the medic bared without complaint. Chora led the colonist over to where the rest of the Turians were gathering, which, surprisingly, was the alley from which she and Lent had emerged in the first place.

Lent and Vahrg were the only two Turians there at the moment, explaining that the captain had the corporal go and collect Eirika and Holly. "He should be back shortly," Vahrg reassured.

The human nodded and turned her attention to Lent, who was sitting on the ground n a restful position. Even Rachael could tell he was tired; the entirety of his form seemed to droop. "You look like shit Lieutenant, how are you?"

The Turian gave a light laugh, but before he could answer Chora interrupted. "What, you don't trust my professional analysis?" she asked, a mock-disbelieving look on her face.

Lent continued to laugh, and Rachael shakily joined him, though on her part it was mostly nerves. The male Turian replied to her earlier query. "I over-exerted my biotics, but I'll be fine with a bit of rest and maybe some food later. You, however, look as if you'll drop dead at any moment."

Rachael gazed down at herself and saw her shaky legs, ripped up and bloodied clothing, and the light grazes and wounds that she hadn't noticed due to adrenaline. She smiled at the lieutenant anyway. "Most human women would take that as an insult… but I can see where you're coming from."

Before the colonist could guiltily inquire more about Lent and his state of health, Spade, Eirika and Holly arrived, the little girl carrying Rachael's beige pack on her tiny shoulders.

As soon as the child entered the passage, the human stopped conversing with Chora and Lent, and went to her daughter. She knelt down in front of the girl and hugged her tightly, professing the worry that she had pushed to the back of her mind for the duration of the skirmish. The colonist contemplated asking Holly if she had been scared, but she doubted the little girl would say anything, and in the end she could already see it in Holly's expressive blue eyes. Rachael stroked her child's hair in a comforting manner, and then pulled the pack off of Holly's shoulders and onto her own.

Addressing Eirika but still gazing at her daughter, Rachael said, "Thank you for watching her," and really meant it, her earlier misgivings replaced by seeing Holly safe and sound. Now that she though about it, it made far more sense for Eirika to stay than any of the others, due to the engineer's distinct lack of bravado.

Eirika, as always, seemed flustered by the praise. "O-oh no, really, it was no problem at all! She was very brave; she didn't make any fuss even when the g-gunshots started."

Rachael grinned at both the engineer and the little girl. "Good, I'd hate to think I didn't raise her be tough."

Spade interjected. "As interesting as your 'talk' is for the both of you, I don't think it's a good idea to stay here for much longer."

Rachael stood up and nodded. Despite how rudely he had voiced his sentiments, the corporal was right. It probably was not the best of ideas to stay here and natter on like a bunch of twits with fifteen bodies lying in the middle of the street not a few feet away. The gunfire might have attracted even more hostiles, and then where would they be? Pushing up daisies, if the colonist's guess was right.

"I agree," the human replied evenly to Spade, "It's about time we got going. I'll take you to the commercial district by way of these alleys, so we don't get made into Swiss cheese on the way."

"Swiss cheese?" Chora lightly questioned.

"Yeah. A cheese that's 'holier than thou', if you know what I mean."

"I don't."

Rachael gave another sigh. She wished that those crazy translator things the Turians had on them would have also helped them understand human expressions. It would make her life just a little bit easier. "It's not important. Just follow me, and if we're careful, no more bullets being fired in our direction for a little while. Sound good to you?"

Lent stood up wearily. "I can make do with that. Lead the way, Rachael."

Both Vahrg and Chora seemed amused by the ending of that sentence, but the colonist barely noticed. She was too preoccupied with the fact that she would have to go through _more _alleys, and nowadays, she didn't like alleyways at all. Still, the human would have to lead anyway, so she might as well get over it.

Hopefully, this time, there wouldn't be any surprises waiting in the dark.

* * *

**AN: So a few things. First of all, if you've read the last chapter again, you may have noticed that the little time stamp at the top has been changed so that it actually makes _sense_! Man that was an annoying screw up. Secondly, are you ready for some more shameless self-promotion? So, the reason I took two months was primarily because of laziness, a little bit because of school, and partly because of my other fic, Zero, which I posted last month. I will be updating Ouroboros and Zero in an alternating manner. So, I'll be working on that next. That probably means updates will come once a month, which is something I don't want, but I really like both of these stories, so they both will get their fair share of time in the sun. Perhaps if I get off my lazy bum once in a while, we'll get some speedier updates, but the operative word in that sentence is "perhaps".**

**Finally, this was my first attempt at an extended action sequence guys! Any and all feedback on how I did would be accepted with much glee, as I drew diagrams for you people. That's right, _diagrams_. So _please _give me your thoughts on this.  
**

**Anyways, I want to thank you all for reading, and I hope to see you again soon!  
**


	7. Day 0: Movement

**AN: Well... um... hi. I'm back! Been a while. So, um, I took a really long time with this; mostly because I was kind of demotivated while I was writing it, and never really felt like sitting down and typing it up. But, I'm happy to inform that I'm out of my funk and back in the writing mood! I want to tell all of you how much I appreciate you guys checking this story and reading it every once in a while, it really warmed the heart to see that people were still interested in it.**

**Well, without further ado, I'll let you get to reading... after I thank my beta, R3aper, for giving me some of his thoughts on this and allaying some of my doubts as well. Thanks again!**

**Enjoy!**

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Terra Zenith Colony #1, Commercial District

June 10, 2157

6:40 P.M.

Lieutenant Lent Tovess was borderline exhausted. He would have been more than happy to collapse to the ground and pass out, but unfortunately, life was not so kind. Already tired from straining his biotics, the Turian's lack of vitality was only worsened by the hour of walking it took to get to the commercial district.

Once they had set out from the alley near the school, Rachael had taken the lead, instructing her daughter to stay with Eirika, out of harm's way. The older human was tense and said little, other than to direct the Turians and answer a few rudimentary questions about their destination. Though she had lost both pistol and knife in the heat of battle, the human had taken another Judgment off of one of the corpses in the alleyway. She kept it drawn, and would always round corners with it raised.

Though she had been composed during the fighting, the circumstances and general events had taken their toll on Rachael in the aftermath. She had obviously been on edge for the entirety of the trip; perhaps she had fully realized what the stakes were.

Lent had fared little better. He had been so focused on clearing out the rest of the Batarians that he had not been paying much attention to himself. When one of the aliens suddenly snuck up on him, he'd had to wrestle with the enemy for a few moments to avoid getting blasted. Then Rachael suddenly came barreling into them both, knife raised, helping him. He would have returned the favor, but the remaining Batarians had begun to recover and would have soon retaliated. In the end, Chora had sprinted from cover and rescued the colonist. Afterward, Lent had stumbled groggily to the alley he and the human had emerged from, soon to be joined by Vahrg, and an irritable, wounded Spade.

The lieutenant had cursed his own inattention for Rachael's close call. It had put their chances of getting off of this planet in severe danger, not to mention the life of an innocent civilian had hung in the balance. He could see bright red marks on the human's neck shaped like hands; a reminder of his carelessness.

Thinking of Rachael as a civilian was beginning to become harder and harder by the moment, however. Her skills were far beyond those of any normal person (alien or otherwise) who happened to have basic combat training. Her ability to utilize stealth was uncannily well developed, and she was level headed about the need to take the lives of her enemies despite her civilian background

It was also important to note how well informed Rachael was about the colony's inner workings. She knew the exact specifications of the ground vehicle they had obtained, and exactly where to get the key to unlock the colony garage, which Lent had found rather strange. The human had explained her knowledge away by saying that a friend of hers had been in the colony guard, and was always 'blabbing' (which Lent assumed meant 'talking', though he couldn't be sure) to her about his job and developments; but the lieutenant wasn't entirely certain she was telling them the whole truth.

In any case, now matter how she had been made privy to it, the information Rachael supplied had allowed them to secure a way to the caves, via an IFV by the name of the "M29 Grizzly." It was similar to a land rover, and had a rather large turret attached to the cockpit, which Lent was glad would be on their side this time around. According to the human, the model that the colony used was a revised one that could hold an additional pair of men for larger patrols.

Lent had assumed at that point that Rachael would drive them over to her 'department store' so she could get her supplies and they could press on, but the Captain, wondering aloud, had pondered the idea of splitting up, leaving Rachael and Holly to their 'shopping' while the Turians went to get their own food to maximize on use of time. The older human had initially objected on the premise that they would leave her and her daughter 'high and dry'. After she had been reassured and her argument rebuked, she brought up the rather significant detail of who was going to operate the vehicle, as 'last she checked, she was the only person with any sort of familiarity with human transports around here'.

Eirika had solved that almost immediately. The engineer had been staring at the Grizzly as if she had been given a shiny new toy, and was messing with her Omni-Tool while the others were talking. She suddenly interjected that she had been examining the vehicle's inner workings and had a general idea of how to drive it. Rachael was puzzled by the sudden shift of Eirika's personality, but had ceded to allow her her chance.

Much to the colonist's surprise, and admittedly Lent's as well, Eirika had maneuvered the Grizzly out of the garage without so much as scratching the paint, and there were no major collisions as they traveled to the department store, a short drive away. Rachael admitted that the Turian had some competence, but still asked the captain if it was a good idea to have someone so inexperienced navigate them to their escape pod. Vahrg had replied that the faster they got off this planet, the better, and Lent concurred.

Thus they had split into two groups, with Rachael, Holly and Lent staying behind in the colony while the rest went for the supplies. The lieutenant hadn't wanted to be left behind, but realized that this was Vahrg's way of allowing him to rest, at least for a short while.

The commercial district of Terra Zenith (or Tezuno, as Rachael kept calling it) was rather small, even for the humble size of the colony. Located on the town's edge, it was a small square that was centrally based around a large, two-story general supply store, with a slight number of cafés, restaurants, and even a couple bars ringing the road. Rachael mentioned that she used to work in this part of the colony, but didn't specify exactly where, and Lent was fairly sure that this was on purpose. She must have had her reasons, so he didn't pry.

While the others were gone, the remaining party was to investigate the central building. Rachael looked at the place with no small amount of disdain, as if she hated even the sight of it. Giving him a backwards glance as she crossed the threshold of the sliding glass doors, the human beckoned him inside. "Well Lieutenant," she called, "I'd like to welcome you to Terra Zenith's own little piece of commercial hell."

…

Alliance General Supply (a government funded store, Rachael remarked, pointing out the blunt name of the establishment) was partitioned into two floors. The first floor dealt with the colonists' groceries, clothing, and general goods, such as tools and electronics. The second was extra storage for surplus military equipment, as well as store administration offices. Most of their business would be conducted on the first floor, but Rachael had said that it would be a good idea for them to pop upstairs and see if they could find something of use.

After they had walked a little ways inside, Rachael stopped and turned to him again, her face showing a tentative concern. "Listen Lieutenant, you don't have to keep an eye on us in here, it's safe enough. Why don't you go sit down somewhere and have some rest? We can come get you when we're done." The human seemed to squirm as she said her piece, as if she was uncomfortable suggesting such a thing to him.

It was mildly concerning that even Rachael could see he wasn't in the best shape, but as far as Lent was concerned, he could still move, and thus, was still functional. "As much as I appreciate the offer, I'm fine, really," he said with a bravado that he certainly didn't feel.

"Don't be so damn stubborn," the human retorted, apparently giving up on the tactful approach. "You're not fine, and don't try to convince me otherwise. If you pass out from exhaustion, you won't be of any use anyway."

"Alright, I'm not fine," Lent admitted, "But I'm still coming with you. We don't know how safe it is here, and it's better to stay together."

"Idiot," was the muttered response he received, but the colonist said nothing more, and Lent took it as a reluctant surrender. Turning her back on him, Rachael and her daughter walked further inside, leaving Lent to follow in relatively awkward silence.

They wandered through the aisles for a few minutes, obviously looking for something in particular, but whatever that was Rachael didn't say. With nothing better to do, the Lieutenant instead observed the oddities that were human 'food'. All of the items that the Turian could see were non-perishable – grain, canned foods, preservatives and the like – and none of them looked at all appetizing. They passed through a particularly cold aisle that contained a very meager supply of 'fresh' food, and Lent suspected that it was the only one of its kind in the entire store. Even these items weren't very appealing, and some stomach turning in the case of a green leafy ball that reminded Lent disturbingly of a Salarian brain.

Occasionally during the search, Lent would stop and grasp onto the nearest solid object as his vision swam in front of him, blurring everything in his path for a few moments. He refused to back down and ask for a rest, but continuing on was becoming less and less appealing.

After a few more minutes wandering (and more than a few grumblings from Rachael about "labeling the damn aisles") the human let out a small sound of triumph along the lines of 'aha', or something to that effect. "I finally found these damn things!"

"Found what, exactly?" Lent questioned, turning from examining a box that seemed to be filled with small clusters of sweetened grain. It astounded Lent that it took Rachael so long to find something particular in a store that resided in _her own colony_, but he didn't comment on it. Something told him that such a thing wouldn't have any real effect and only gain him his companion's ire instead.

"Well Lieutenant, these are what one would call 'nutrient bars'," she explained, holding out a box that was filled with individually wrapped blocks of what he assumed was yet another variation of human grain. "This particular brand of them advertises that each one is good for a day's energy. It's a completely bullshit marketing campaign, but I've had some before, and along with tasting the least bit like compacted dirt out of their kind, they're serviceable enough as a fairly decent ration."

What the feces of an earth animal such as the male bovine had to do with marketing, Lent didn't know, but he assumed it was nothing good. Rachael seemed to have made her peace with it, as her attitude indicated, as well as the fact that she was stuffing the entire carton into her pack.

After this was done, and the pack was safely slung back onto the human's shoulders, with a few complaints about heaviness being muttered, Rachael continued on to say, "I also wanted to get some new clothes while I was here too. This stuff that I've got on is pretty much in tatters, and I don't fancy traipsing through some caves in horribly ripped jeans and a tank-top. Not to mention there was that expensive pair of faux leather boots Mari showed me last time I was here..."

Lent nodded his assent. They had plenty of time left before Vahrg and the others would even be close to coming back, so if she wanted to get better equipped, that was fine. He was curious as to who this 'Mari' was, but perhaps it was best not to pry, as this was the first information about the colonist's earlier life that she had mentioned voluntarily, and he didn't want to discourage her.

"Great! Now you stay here, while Holly and I do a little shopping."

"Didn't I say I was coming with you?"

"Shut up Lieutenant. You think I wandered around for ten minutes on _accident_?" Rachael's face took on that concerned look again. "There's nothing here to worry about, so why don't you just relax and find someplace to sit while we take care of business? You look so... deflated."

Unfortunately, it was true. As the moments had gone by, Lent had been feeling even more and more winded. And true enough, if anything malignant haunted Alliance General Supply, it would have come and confronted them by now, what with all the racket Rachael had 'accidentally' made. It spoke to his exhaustion that he hadn't noticed her ploy sooner. Reluctantly, Lent gave another nod of agreement.

Rachael led him to a semi-comfortable chair in the clothing section, (made even less so by the fact that it was designed for a human) and left him to do as he pleased from there. With Holly in tow, the colonist disappeared into the racks of garments.

Refusing to give into the impulse to sleep, Lent tried to interest himself instead into the surroundings. The area contained a myriad of clothing in all sorts of odd shapes and colors, at least from a Turian perspective. The general utilitarian quality of Terra Zenith seemed to be diminished on this subject, as with so many things to choose from, one would most likely to pander to one's own tastes.

Unfortunately, Lent had never been interested in clothing or fashion, and most other Turians he knew felt the same way. As long as an outfit was serviceable, it didn't matter what it looked like. Because of this rationale, boredom closed in on the lieutenant, and with it unconsciousness. It was at the edge of this state, with his own thoughts quieted and his cognition about to fall into slumber, that Lent realized he could faintly hear Rachael speaking.

"...is pretty weird huh?" he made out, "Doing something so normal all of a sudden? One minute you're fighting for your life, the next you're trying to figure out which color top you want. Either way... anything catching your eye Holly?"

There was a small silence, as if Rachael was waiting for an answer. When nothing of the sort came, she continued, "Nothing, huh? You always were picky, but I suppose that's natural." There was another period of silence, with only the slight scrape of plastic sliding on metal in between. Then Rachael suddenly exclaimed, "Ooh!" followed by the clatter of something being removed from a rack. "What about this? It's cute, right?"

Lent expected silence to follow once more, but astonishingly, there was a thin murmur that the Turian had to really strain to hear. "...I … guess?" The words came out as a croak, as if uttered by an altogether too dry throat, and there was little emotion behind them.

"What do you mean 'I gue-'" Rachael cut herself off. "Wait, what?"

"I don't know... it looks like what you would wear at home," Holly replied, answering the wrong question.

Apparently Rachael took this as a sign to act as if everything was normal, as she didn't pry into why the child had suddenly decided to speak up. Lent could only guess as well. Perhaps it had something to do with not being in the presence of copious amounts of strange, 'scary' aliens.

"Really?" the older woman returned without more than a second's pause, "I though it was bit more 'out there' myself, more... outdoorsy, a nice change of pace. It looks like my usual style?"

"Yeah..." Holly returned noncommittally.

"Well, I suppose I can see where you're coming from a little..."

Over the next few minutes, the two humans moved in and out of earshot, with most of the talking being done by Rachael. The older of the two women was occasionally able to tease a minimal response out of Holly, but these were few and far between, and none of them contained any identifiable enthusiasm from the little girl.

Rachael obviously noticed this, as on one of these occasions, the older human suddenly said, "Hey... kiddo. Buck up, alright? I know things are weird and scary right now, and I know it's hard, but you can't let it get you down, you know? You gotta have perseverance and all that rubbish that you're supposed to have when everything goes down the tubes."

Holly didn't answer, and so it appeared that the human's attempt to comfort her charge had failed. True to her own words, however, Rachael continued. "You know what? Let me tell you a story, 'kay? You see this thing?"

"...Yeah, that creepy looking bracelet you wear all the time. What about it? You never talk about it."

"Huh? It's not creepy... is it? Oh, whatever, that's beside the point. Anyway, this thing is called an ouroboros, a snake eating it's own tail. It's an old symbol from one of those early civilizations, the Greeks, I think. Or was it the Egyptians...? Either way, it represents infinity and the cyclical nature of the universe... oh crap, that's too complicated to understand isn't it? Basically, think of it as spring always coming after winter, no matter how long or harsh it is. I got this a long time ago, at an... unbalanced time in my life, while I still lived on Earth. It's a reminder that things always get better with time and..." She trailed off. "Did you understand where I was going with this?"

"No," Holly replied bluntly.

"Damn it!" Rachael cursed emphatically. "Well," she continued with a sigh, "I guess that's the best I can do. This kind of thing was never my strong suit."

"It's okay. I sort of get what you mean," the younger human responded. "A little."

Rachael heaved a small sigh of relief. "Well, at least I don't totally fail at communication. Anyway, come on kiddo, we gotta finish up. I'm sure the lieutenant wouldn't appreciate being left behind for an extra twenty minutes just so we could have a chat instead of doing what we're supposed too."

Lent found that statement rather ironic, considering she had _wanted _him to rest only a little while earlier.

Irony aside, it _was_ interesting to learn more about Rachael; albeit not in the most honorable way. The Turian found himself wondering what kind of 'unbalanced' time in her life had prompted her to obtain a reminder of better days to come. Considering what he knew of her abilities, he could suppose that it was a time filled with more than a few hardships that had ultimately led to Rachael's current status and skills, though what exactly those hardships were wasn't easily ascertained. Still, he couldn't help but try to puzzle through all of the possibilities. Perhaps a past military background, or maybe an association with a less than lawful outfit, could viably explain them...

"Umm... Hello? Are you still alive Lieutenant?"

Lent jumped slightly in his seat, surprised out of his thoughts by Rachael's sudden reappearance. He must have been thinking for a while. It spoke to his tiredness that he could be so easily distracted that he didn't notice Rachael and Holly right in front of him.

The colonist chuckled lightly, and at her side, Holly's mouth quirked upward in a smirk of childish amusement. "I take it you rested well?" the former asked with a rather large grin on her face.

"I can't say I'm completely rejuvenated, but the idea of moving from this spot is more attractive than it was earlier," Lent replied, trying to ignore the smugness in her voice. He squinted at the new clothing Rachael had chosen for herself, which seemed to include some sturdier footwear in the form of a pair of leather boots, a new pair of khaki colored pants, and a thin hooded jacket of a dark green color that mostly covered a new black undershirt. The Turian's eyes lingered on her wrist, where her bracelet hung.

"I suppose that's better than nothing," Rachael replied. Noticing his scrutiny, she continued on in a confused tone, "...Why are you staring at me like that?"

Lent shook his head. "No real reason. Just examining your new look."

"What, you don't like it?

"I'm of a completely different species; my opinion is invalid."

"Good point. Anyway, do you feel up to checking out the supplies upstairs with me and Holly? Of course, if you want to stay down here and rest a little longer..."

Lent was quick to shake his head no. "I'll come with you, I'm feeling better, honestly. I don't want to sit idle any longer than I have to."

"Fine then, let's head up," Rachael said, beckoning him as she walked to a small, discreet staircase that led to the upper level.

...

They had found little on the second floor. The 'military surplus storage' was a misleading name depicting a large supply of combat gear. Instead, all they had discovered were a few bare bones supplies and rations, with few pieces of actual equipment available. Despite this, Rachael had been able to scavenge a new knife from one of the crates or lockers while Lent was examining some other trivial piece of hardware. The human had also located a new holster – which attached around her hips rather than her shoulders – that, after some stretching and adjusting, was able to fit her and her Judgment with little trouble. After putting the new holster on and discarding the old one, the human had placed the primitive pistol into her pack, though she gave no specific reason for holding onto it.

All in all, they had spent at least forty minutes scrounging around the upper floor, and by Lent' s estimate the other Turians should have been near finished with their own task. The lieutenant informed Rachael of this, and she agreed it was time to get ready to leave. However, as they passed a set of doors on the lower floor, Rachael's face suddenly gained a strained look. "Hey, um..." she murmured, "You mind waiting here for a couple minutes?"

"Why? Is something wrong?" Lent asked in confusion. He didn't want to delay much longer. The last time they'd done so hadn't turned out well.

"No no... I just, you know. Need to use the loo," she said, jamming a thumb in the direction of the doors.

"The... loo?"

"The bathroom," Rachael said impatiently, obviously not in the mood to bandy words.

"I hardly think this is the time for a bath," Lent returned deadpan.

Rachael smacked the palm of one hand to her face and peeked out through the fingers. She sighed. "I have to urinate. Watch Holly," she stated bluntly before disappearing into one of the doors marked with a crude symbol of a human female.

Holly glanced at Lent and shook her head before walking over to sit by the wall. Apparently she was unperturbed by the further delay.

Thus they waited. And waited. Lent couldn't stop checking the time on his Omni-Tool. It had been ten minutes already. What in spirits name was she _doing _in there? Did humans really take this long to...?

Lent huffed impatiently, crossing his arms. He wondered if she were doing this on purpose, though to what end other than his annoyance was beyond his comprehension. Fed up, the lieutenant moved over to the door with the intention of knocking and telling Rachael to hurry, embarrassing as such an action may have been.

Instead of this, a voice wafted through the thick metal portal, and Lent stopped in his tracks. "God damn it..." the human seemed to murmur across the barrier, "I hate this shit... ha, that's certainly fitting." Rachael's voice was bitter and vexed, her laughter containing not even the slightest ounce of humor. "Going along with everything like it's no big deal... I'm fucking sick of it. There's only so much a girl can handle. Maybe I was good with this crap in the past, but that isn't me anymore. I can't pull it off anymore."

There was a slight silence, and Lent realized that he was hearing Rachael's inner struggles, the ones she'd been keeping hidden from those around her, and maybe even herself. It made him feel guilty, for intruding on an obviously private moment of weakness, but in the end he still listened.

Another bitter laugh came suddenly. "Aliens, of all things. Fucking creatures from the depths of space, coming here to kill and kidnap the lonely human colony." More laughter. "It's like a goddamn trashy sci-fi novel from a hundred years ago." A pause. "I can still feel that thing's hands around my neck. Seeing the marks... isn't helping. I can remember his breath on my face, that strange, but horribly familiar grin on his."

Silence stretched for a few more moments, and Lent began to think that she wouldn't continue, but once again her words wafted through the metal to resound faintly in his ears. "I wish I could just sit down somewhere and figure myself out. The aliens... my mental problems... Holly. All of it. But I have to keep moving forward. If I stop to think, I'll just be repeating that idiocy in the alleyway again. And sooner or later, no big Turian with fancy magic powers is going to come save me."

Another hollow laugh came. "Listen to me," she chuckled, "Talking to myself, like some crazy nob. I'm not fully insane yet; I should stop this. Maybe a bit of music will help me calm down, and then maybe I can stop voicing my troubles to myself in the public toilets." There was small period of quiet after those words were uttered. Then, Rachael began to hum to herself, a sound even softer than her monologue. The tune was lazy and melodic, with a hint of melancholy hidden in its lackadaisical mood.

Lent stopped listening. If she were to continue, he didn't need to hear it. He had been thinking of Rachael as a tough one, someone who was able to handle herself and keep her cool. And that was true of her, in some respects. But another truth had been revealed to him. The truth that Rachael _was _phased by everything that had happened to her, to her friends, to the entire colony. She wasn't taking it in stride because she had a choice. The human had been forced to adapt against her will, and things were starting to take their toll.

The lieutenant waited patiently after that. It wasn't much longer, maybe two or three more minutes, before the human emerged again. She had the good grace to look a bit embarrassed at how long she had taken. "Sorry about that," she said with a little bit less than her usual verve, "I guess I had a lot more-"

"It's fine," Lent cut her off, quick to interrupt. He didn't want to know more than the bare minimum on how humans... excreted. He added a bit of impatience to his tone though, so as to not alert her to what he'd overheard.

Rachael's face flushed red, and she turned to Holly in embarrassment. "Do you have to go?"

The little girl shook her head, but there was a slight smile of amusement on her face.

"W-well, anyway, we should probably get going-" Rachael stopped, cut off again. This interruption had been caused by a beep from Lent's Omni-Tool.

Bringing up his forearm, Lent saw that it was a vid comm request from Chora, and immediately answered, ignoring the irritated grumbling from Rachael about maybe being able to complete sentence sometime. Chora's face appeared on a holo screen, looking slightly stressed. The loud rumble of the Grizzly in the background was extremely prevalent, as if they were traveling quickly.

Lent got the hint. "Zecht? What's happened?"

"There's been a slight... hiccup in the plan," Chora replied, her speech garbled slightly by the comm link. Wasting no time with pleasantries, she continued, "We got the supplies alright but- ah spirits!"

The exclamation was followed by the image in the holo shaking slightly. There was a short apology from somewhere off screen before everything straightened out again. Rachael came up behind him and peered over his shoulder to look at the comm, obviously curious.

Chora threw a leer to her left, then looked back at her Omni-Tool. "Inice hasn't gotten any more adept at driving human crap in the last hour or so, as you can probably see. Anyway, the pod was being watched, which we had been kind of prepared for. What we didn't know, was that there would be more than three vehicles with combat specs driving up on us as soon as we finished. We didn't have much choice and retreated. We think we lost them... but we're not entirely sure. Listen, we'll be at the commercial district in a minute or two, and you three need be ready to ru- damn it Inice!" The screen rocked again, violently this time.

"Sorry! That hill came out of nowhere!"

"Right, just like the tree, and the small mammal!" Chora gave her attention back to the screen. "The point is that you guys need to be ready to go, we'll be there soon. Here's to hoping we don't explode on the way." Chora signed off with a sigh, closing the comm.

Rachael stepped back from Lent and said, "So I take it we need to get out of here?"

Lent nodded. "Is there anywhere we can safely wait around here?"

"Yeah, a couple places, but... wouldn't they have some trouble finding us?"

"They can track my Omni-Tool," Lent replied, clasping his forearm, "I just want us to be nearer to the road so we can leave as quickly as possible. I don't want to take any chances."

Rachael considered this for a moment, then answered, "Okay then, I think I know a place. We should be able to wait around back. The shadows will be pretty long and deep behind the store now that it's so late, and we can be pretty close to the road."

"Good enough, I suppose."

With that, Rachael lifted Holly onto her feet and began to lead the way out of the building, her mismatched eyes alight with determination. She was no doubt preparing herself for more trouble, and Lent wondered for a moment if she had once again pushed aside her inner turmoil in favor of survival, before clearing his mind of such thoughts and following at a brisk pace.

They walked out of the front doors, which led to a small common area. The open space provided a good view of the darkening sky and setting sun, but instead of proceeding forward, Rachael turned sharply to the right and led them along the wall, in a route around Alliance General Supply. Behind the building, a large pool of deep shadow had formed, stretching even across the roadway. There wasn't exactly a large amount of cover to choose from in the essentially open space the shadow encircled, so Rachael ended up leading them to a spot close enough to the road to be practical, but far enough away to be discreet.

They waited in silence for perhaps a few minutes. Rachael played with that piece of hair that hung beside one of her eyes, as she seemed to usually do when she was nervous or otherwise vexed. Holly merely stood, clasping her mother's hand and shifting her weight impatiently. Lent moved in a similar way as he stood, arms crossed, eyes darting about in vigilance to banish the tiredness that hadn't nearly disappeared.

Fortunately, they weren't left idle long. Lent heard the roar of an engine in the distance before the Grizzly pulled into sight, tires screeching slightly as it braked hard to stop in front of them. A hatch on the side flew open and Chora poked her head out. "Don't just stand there like idiots, hurry up!" she yelled, gesturing for them to come over.

Two other hatches popped open and the three hastily made their way over to the Grizzly, climbing inside. Rachael and Holly had no problems getting in, but Lent misjudged the height of the hatch and smacked the top of his head against the metal. Cursing savagely, he made the rest of way inside, and no sooner than the hatch had closed behind him did the rover start speeding away.

The cockpit of the vehicle was cramped, and not exactly designed for Turians. The seats had an even less comfortable shape than the one in Alliance General supply, and the ceiling encroached on the lieutenant's upper extremities. While there weren't any real windows on the Grizzly, holographic displays showed the landscape in front of the IFV as well as behind it. Vahrg sat in the same row as Lent, just under a set of contraptions that most likely controlled the turret above, with Rachael and Holly in front of them. Even further up, Eirika sat in the driver's seat.

Spade and Chora occupied the two seats in the back, most likely for the latter to help treat the former's shoulder wound. The corporal threw them a glance, but made no remarks, which probably meant that he wasn't in too foul a mood anymore. The armor on his wounded shoulder had been removed in favor of an indigo stained bandage.

Chora had, on the other hand, cleaned some of the blood off of her own armor, and looked no worse for wear because of it. She greeted them with a tired grin. "Sorry to rush you three like that, we have no idea if they're still tracking us. Anyway, Rache, you need to head up front to direct Eirika. It sucks that we can't switch drivers, but we don't have time."

"No problemo," Rachael answered, shrugging off her pack and placing it on the seat, "She's probably a better driver than I am already. It's not like I've ever been behind the wheel of one of these before."

"Weren't you complaining that she wouldn't be able to drive as well as you earlier?"

Rachael ignored the comment. The cramped quarters of the Grizzly's interior weren't the best environment for switching rows, and the colonist was forced to crawl between the front two seats to move up. The feat would have been impossible for a Turian in armor, though the movement gave Eirika little pause other than to shift slightly to get out of the way. Once the human had situated herself in front, she began animatedly directing the engineer to where she would need to go. Behind them, Holly looked mildly displeased at the temporary separation from her mother, but made no fuss.

"You look a little better Lieutenant," Vahrg uttered beside Lent, making the latter Turian turn his attention back to his captain. "I take it you rested some?"

"Our human friend essentially forced me to," Lent replied.

Chora gave an amused snort from behind them. "Why am I not surprised? That reminds me Tovess, here, take these," the field medic said, passing a small ration pack and an even smaller canteen of water to him. "We had a heck of a time getting all of the stuff in this thing, but we managed alright."

"And we also managed to get away from that ambush with less trouble than I expected," Vahrg added. "They made that large show of force, but didn't put much effort into pursuit. We lost them only a few minutes after fleeing... it is worrying."

"Do you think they're planning something?" Lent asked.

"The Batarians are less than likely to be pleased that we wiped out all of those men back in the colony," the corporal piped up from the back, "I don't think they'd let us go so easily for no reason."

"Question is, what reason was it?," Chora asked

"I don't know," the captain supplied, "But it can't be anything good for us. We should check our radars for anything suspicious as much as possible."

Everyone nodded their assent to the only plan they could feasibly make with so little information. The conversation lapsed into silence. Vahrg seemed to be taking the time to think over all the grim possibilities of what was in store for them, checking his Omni-Tool periodically, on the alert for danger. In the moments that followed the Turians' discussion, Holly passed out in the seat in front of Lent, using her mother's pack as a makeshift pillow. Lent ate the food Chora had given him, providing him with some more energy, and it would have to do since he was too on edge to really sleep.

Chora took the opportunity to check on Spade's wound, with small protests being uttered by the latter. With the practiced movements of someone who knew what they were doing, Chora peeled aside the bloody bandage to glance at the marred flesh beneath.

"Good," she said, "It's not infected, though you made it worse by trying to help with the supplies. Next time, try to refrain from agitating it by doing something stupid, alright? I hate having to treat a wound a third time."

Spade grunted something that could be construed as an affirmation, so Chora just left it at that, redoing the bandage in silence.

Rachael, however, called from up front, "Hey, I have something in my bag that's good for closing wounds quickly, if you want to take a look at it."

"Hmm? I don't think it would work Rache, our species' biology are pretty different. The protein difference alone would cause problems," Chora returned. Lent didn't look, but he was fairly sure Spade was relieved that nothing created by humans was going to be used on him.

"Protein difference?" was the colonist's confused response.

"Oh yeah, we haven't told you about that yet. Our basic proteins are different, so we can't derive sustenance from food of the opposite protein like yours. That applies to a lot of medicine as well. It can cause it to have no effect, or even a completely different one."

"Wow. That's inconvenient."

"It's basic biology," Chora said simply.

Rachael nodded at that. "Well, if you ever want to give it a look anyway, just ask," she offered.

"I'll keep that in mind," the field medic answered. Chora would most likely wish to ask her later. They didn't have time now, but the original mission was to gather information, which they could still accomplish to some extent, using Rachael as a source. "But I do want to ask you about these 'caves' we're going to."

"What do you want to know?"

"The basics really. You haven't given very many details."

"Okay... the caves are something we discovered around three years ago. They thread their way through the mountain in a roundabout manner, eventually emerging out on the other side, on a large plateau that it's almost impossible to otherwise get to from land. The cavern entrance we're using is big enough to admit something like the Grizzly, but not anything larger. The inside widens out a bit and is easily navigable by vehicles and the like. There's also a stream that crosses it at a few points, though we're not entirely sure if it was the original cause of the tunnel's formation; and it's pretty windy in there, not to mention rather cold."

"So why'd you guys decide to put an emergency comm tower on the other side of a convoluted cave system?" Chora inquired.

"You act like I had a say in the matter," Rachael protested indignantly. "I don't know why; I guess the Alliance wanted it to be out of the way so no one noticed it, or something like that."

"How long will it take to get there?"

"If we keep off-roading it like this, I'm gonna hazard a guess of around an hour. Anything else?" the human asked wearily. She'd started making those rubbing motions on her skull again, most likely trying to offset another headache.

Chora seemed to think for a moment before replying. "...No, that's about all I can think of to ask, unless someone else has a question."

No one else piped up. Rachael sighed gratefully. "Thank god. My head is pounding all of a sudden," she said as she slumped forward slightly in her seat, still rubbing.

...

Silence reigned for a long time after that. Lent slipped into a trance-like state; not exactly asleep, but still providing him with some mental respite. As he watched the displays up front, the landscape changed from an expansive grassy plain with little in the way of vegetation and a good view of the night sky, to an area of light brown dirt and rock outcrops that popped up every few meters. Gravel crackled under the Grizzly's tires as they traveled, providing white noise that the lieutenant could easily lose himself in, though he still checked his Omni-Tool every so often.

It wasn't obvious when it happened. No shots rang out; no large bang or even the sound of a second vehicle in the distance came to Lent's ears. Instead, the lieutenant noticed his captain tense slightly, in an almost imperceptible manner. Returning to a more awake state in an instant, Lent quickly pulled up his Omni-Tool interface and saw exactly what Vahrg had. The radar had once again been jammed.

"Engineer," Vahrg called, "They're back. Can we go any faster?" He didn't sound surprised.

"M-maybe," Eirika stammered. She looked to Rachael.

"What?" the human asked, alarmed back into an upright position. "I thought you lost them!"

"Apparently not," the captain said. "Now, can we go any faster? If they come in force, this turret will most likely prove inadequate."

Rachael shook her head. "No. We're coming up on the path that leads to it, but it's a sharp turn and if we go too fast we'll miss it for sure."

"Damn!"Vahrg exclaimed in frustration. "...Fine, I'll have to man this turret and see what I can do to delay them if they get too close." The captain straightened – though only just, as to not bang his head on the low ceiling of the cockpit – and began adjusting the controls above him to their working positions. It had a rather primitive set up compared to Turian standards, but it allowed the operator to rotate the turret without actually turning around themselves, and had a display located in the central apparatus to give visual feedback and a rough targeting reticle.

Vahrg worked the controls for a few moments, perhaps getting a feel for them, then adjusted them so he could use the display to scout around. Lent couldn't see much on the display from where he sat, but the captain didn't tense or do anything to signify something was out of the ordinary.

Time passed for a few minutes with nothing happening. Lent's radar was still jammed, but no enemies had shown up to deal with them yet. In front of him, he could see Rachael starting to relax. "Almost there," she called, a burgeoning hope in her voice.

It was at that exact moment that Vahrg spotted the Batarians and said, "Five hostiles coming up on us from the plains. They look to be ET3's."

"Shit!" Rachael bit angrily in frustration

"Those are just transports, right?" Chora asked.

"Normally, yes. However, these seem to have weapon modifications, though I cannot tell what they are from this distance."

"Transports…" Rachael mused worriedly. "Wait, they didn't use those to-"

"Most likely. That's the best reason I can think of for the Batarians sending them; the ET3's were already here," Lent replied bluntly.

Before the human had time to think much about that, Vahrg continued speaking. "That model of vehicle is typically slow, but at this rate they'll catch up to us in a few minutes. Are you absolutely sure we can't go any faster?"

"Yes, we've only got a little farther to go now; if we speed up we'll overshoot and have to turn around, which isn't an option anymore," Rachael returned, not without a measure of bitterness in her voice.

Vahrg sighed. "Then we'll just have to hope we can escape through the caves before they can effectively pursue us. I'll keep watching them," the captain said, turning back to the display.

The atmosphere returned to tense silence. The individual moments to follow were marked by Vahrg's reports on the enemy's progress. Rachael didn't seem to pay much mind to the advancing hostiles; she stared intently into the projected landscape, muttering to herself occasionally. "Come on," she breathed. "Come on, where the hell is it?"

"They'll be in range soon," the captain called, "We need that exit now Aureus!"

"Almost there!" Rachael repeated, taking only the slightest attention from the window display to answer. When she turned back to her task, she gasped. "Is that...?" she whispered to herself. "It is! Up there, turn left up there, past that outcrop with the rocks all lined up!" the human shouted to Eirika.

The engineer sped up despite Rachael's earlier warnings and prepared for the turn.

"Damn it, they're in range!" Vahrg called. The turret began to boom overhead just as the Grizzly violently swung to the side, with everyone inside bracing themselves so they didn't smack into the walls.

"It's a straight shot into the caves from here Engineer, so punch it!" Rachael told Eirika anxiously.

"Punch what?" the Turian returned, a confused desperation in her voice as she glanced around, presumably for something in which to plant her fist.

"Oh for god's sake; just go faster dammit!"

Eirika nodded dumbly and obliged, jittering nervously in her seat as the cannon's thrum once more came from above. Lent examined the rear-view display over Rachael's shoulder, catching a glimpse of two of the ET3's following behind them and closing in on the Grizzly.

"We're almost there, if we can get to the caves, we can lose them on the paths!" Rachael shouted encouragingly.

"They're getting closer," Vahrg returned gruffly as he maneuvered the turret and continued shooting.

"I know, okay?" the human threw behind her, "Try and keep them back just a little longer and we can- wait, what the hell is that?"

Lent looked back at the display and saw what had caused Rachael's outburst. A large projectile with smoke billowing out behind it was quickly crossing the distance between the nearest Batarian vehicle and the Grizzly. Chora must have seen it too, as she called out behind him, "That's a... missile!"

* * *

_**~End of Day** **0~**_


End file.
